Today’s Verse
“For to us a child is born, to us a son is given, and the government will be on his shoulders. And he will be called Wonderful Counselor, Mighty God, Everlasting Father, Prince of Peace.”
Isaiah 9:6
Peace in the Middle
Peace isn’t found by eliminating the storm, it’s found in the presence of the One who commands it. And at Christmas, we celebrate the arrival of that very presence. The angels announced it over Bethlehem: “Peace on earth.” Not because the world suddenly became peaceful, but because the Prince of Peace had entered it.
The world Jesus was born into wasn’t calm. It was occupied by Rome, ruled by a paranoid king, filled with injustice and suffering. Mary and Joseph were far from home, scrambling to find shelter. Shepherds were working the night shift in the fields. Nothing about that first Christmas night was peaceful by the world’s standards. And yet, peace came, not as the absence of trouble, but as the presence of God.
The disciples learned this same truth years later when they were caught in a storm on the sea. Waves crashed, wind howled, and they were convinced they were going to die. Meanwhile, Jesus was asleep, completely at rest in the middle of the chaos. When they woke Him, terrified and desperate, He stood and spoke three words: “Peace, be still.” The storm obeyed. But before He calmed the storm, He asked them: “Why are you so afraid?”
Here’s what He was saying then and what He’s saying now: I’m here. I’m with you. The storm isn’t bigger than Me.
Today, as we approach Christmas, whatever storm you’re in, financial stress, relational conflict, grief, global chaos, Jesus is with you. His peace isn’t contingent on the storm ending. It’s available right now, in the middle of it. Because peace isn’t a circumstance. Peace is a Person. And He came to be with us.
Today’s Prayer
Lord, You are my peace in troubled times, the calm in the center of the storm, the steady presence when everything else is shaking.
These times are troubled, the world feels chaotic, my circumstances are uncertain, and I need the peace that only You can give.
Teach me that Your peace isn’t the absence of trouble but Your presence in the middle of it, that I can have peace not because everything is calm but because You are near.
You spoke peace to the raging sea and it obeyed, and You offer that same peace to my anxious heart, my troubled mind, my fearful spirit.
Help me receive Your peace instead of chasing after things that promise calm but can’t deliver, to stop trying to create my own peace through control or avoidance.
Remind me that Your peace surpasses understanding, that it doesn’t make logical sense given my circumstances, but it holds me steady when nothing else can.
Give me the faith to trust Your peace over my panic, to choose stillness over striving, to rest in You when everything around me demands I worry.
Let Your peace guard my heart and mind today, settling over my soul like a blanket, reminding me that no matter how troubled the times, You are my peace and You will never leave.
In Jesus’ name,
Amen.