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Finding Peace in the Storm
The Lord is at hand. Have no anxiety about
anything, but in everything by prayer and supplication
with thanksgiving, let your requests be
made known to God. And the peace of God,
which passes all understanding, will keep your
hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus. (4:4–7)
The most astonishing aspect of this passage is that
it was written while Paul was in prison! The only right
he retained was to have a trial before Caesar. He had
given all up for Christ, and now nothing remained
for him. Yet he was able, in the midst of what most
would call a profound tragedy, to rejoice and speak of
supernatural peace.
How can he say, “Have no anxiety about anything”?
He could say it because he clearly knew Jesus. Paul
was walking in the will of God, and God would never
lead him astray. Thus, he had the peace that passes
all understanding because he entrusted himself to his
faithful and trustworthy Father in Heaven and embraced
His holy will. This kind of embrace is the most
powerful source of peace a man can know in the face
of all that can and will assault us in this life.
Solomon, who tasted to saturation all the pleasures
of the world and found them bitter, voiced his disillusionment
thus: But this also is vanity and vexation of spirit.
A fool, says the Holy Spirit, is changed as the moon; but a
holy man continues in wisdom as the sun. The fool — that is,
the sinner — is as changeable as the moon, which today
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