When everything around you seems to be spinning out of control, it is good there is something that can bring stability into your life.

This stability is one of the functions of the Christian experience.

We are promised that the Lord will be a present help in our time of need and that is assuring enough to bring peace in the storm.

We have examples of this taming of storms in the Bible as Jesus is with His disciples as they journey across the Sea of Galilee and He is asleep in the boat with the storm raging. That ability to sleep comes out of the assurance He had the storm was not going to destroy Him.

The disciples awaken Jesus, and He speaks to the storm that has terrified them. The storm obeys Jesus’ command, and the disciples are amazed at how even nature obeys Jesus.

Today, there are storms around us that seem to bring anxiety in abundance. We are constantly being reminded of global warming, coronavirus, political division, hot spot warfare, national strivings, bullying, terrorism and other headline-making situations.

Our hearts could fail us from all these possibilities happening, but for the Christian, it is time to call on the name of the Lord our God.

When we call out to our Lord, there is comfort and peace that comes as we lean upon His strength.

In a recent prayer call, one of the participants prayed, “Lord, we need you. We want you in our life situations. Lord, we need you!” That prayer expresses the need for the Lord to be called upon for His help in our present time.

We are like the disciples in that we try to make it through life without disturbing the Lord, but there comes a time when the call needs to go out before we make shipwreck of those traveling with us.

The storms we have raging around us will bring shipwreck in our lives unless we can find peace in the middle of the storm.

There is an old saying about keeping your head when those around you are losing theirs. This saying encourages us to not be driven by the circumstances but to be able to act with reason.

In a time when everything around you is pushing for attention, it is important to have peace in the middle of the storm time and to be able to take the appropriate actions that are available to us.

The first thing I want to do in these perilous times is to call upon Jesus to be inserted into my life events.

I invite you to take time to consider that today we need the Lord in life’s activities more than ever with all of the storms going on around us.

David Douglas is the senior pastor at Church of God Cathedral,  3313 Lexington Road. He has been senior pastor since September 2000.