2. Make Room for Peace

We all want to forget the year 2020, especially those spring months when the COVID virus and the fear of the unknown began to move around the globe. However, in the midst of that pandemic we learned where people go to find peace. The Bible. During the hardest moments of 2020, Bible searches soared online and a record number of people turned to Scripture for passages addressing fear, healing, and justice. The YouVersion Bible app saw searches increase by 80%, totaling nearly 600 million worldwide. YouVersion found Bobby Gruenewald said, "Through every hardship, people continue to seek God and turn to the Bible for strength, peace, and hope. While 2020 is a year so many say they'd like to forget, we see it as a year to remember how God used the Bible app to help so many people who were searching for answers." Overall, the app tracked 43.6 billion chapters of the Bible read in 2020, with half a billion verses shared, its highest on record. So for many people, reading Scripture is a way that they find peace in their moments of stress and anxiety. What do you do to find peace? Finding peace is something that a lot of people, maybe even you, are trying to find. The unfortunate reality is we end up pursuing a lot of unhealthy comforts which in the end don't bring peace, and instead hook us into habits that hurt. This is one of the reason why Scripture admonishes us to practice discipline, and self control in our pursuit of finding the peace that only Jesus can give. This is why this Christmas season we are practicing some of the disciplines of advent. Advent challenges us to make space for Jesus in our lives by preparing for his coming through worship, prayer, fasting, Scripture reading and acts of generosity. On Sunday we will continue with part two of our advent sermon series by discovering how we can find true peace in our lives when we make room for Jesus in our chaotic lives. To join us on the journey give a listen to part two of Make Room.