How to Find Peace When Everything Feels Out of Control | BE Calm

Day 297 — BE Calm | Pastor Kerry Francis | October 29, 2026 A Year in Freedom Daily Devotional | NFCM House of Freedom Storms never surprised Jesus. In fact, He slept through one — and that detail is easy to rush past. The disciples were terrified, the boat was filling with water, and Jesus was asleep on a cushion in the bottom of the ship. Not absent. Not unaware. Simply unbothered by what was threatening to drown everyone aboard. In today’s devotional, Pastor Kerry Francis points to what happened when they woke Him. No panic, no strategizing, no asking for a situation report. He got up, rebuked the wind, and said to the sea, “Quiet. Be still” — and it was completely calm. Two words. The same authority He used to heal the sick and raise the dead, now applied to the weather. We tend to limit God’s power, imagining some things are too small or outside His jurisdiction. To Jesus, a storm was simply one more thing subject to His voice. And here’s the detail that matters most: Jesus was calm before He spoke. He didn’t work Himself into calm through the rebuke — He was already there. He lived there. The calm preceded the command, because it came from who He was rather than from what the storm was doing. That’s the model. Calm isn’t the absence of a storm; it’s the presence of Someone whose authority over it is already settled. The psalmist pairs the command with its condition: “Be still, and know that I am God.” Stillness is connected to knowing. You can be still in a storm when you know who’s in the boat with you — and that stillness is what makes you useful in the moment rather than one more panicked voice adding to the chaos. Panic costs you something. It’s loud, it fills every space with urgency, and it removes you from where you could hear God, because the voice that calms storms speaks to people still enough to hear it. When the disciples cried, “Don’t you care that we’re drowning?” that wasn’t really a prayer — it was an accusation wrapped in desperation. And Jesus, unrattled, addressed the storm first and then their fear. That same calm is available to you. You don’t have to manufacture it or pretend the storm isn’t real. Key Scriptures: Mark 4:35–40, Psalm 46:10, Hebrews 12:2 Comment: “Today I will BE Calm.” 🎧 Hear more from Pastor Kerry Francis:    / @kerrytfrancis   🌐 Go deeper + full journey:    • Freedom Daily Devotionals   #BeCalm #DailyDevotional #AYearInFreedom #NFCMHouseOfFreedom #Mark439 #PeaceBeStill #Psalm4610 #FaithOverFear