Stormy Seas

When people ask me what was the most difficult time of my life, I point to two times. One was in high school when I really struggled with understanding God’s goodness. I was angry with God because my dad had died when I was so young, and I was having a hard time seeing the goodness of God in my own life. The other time was early on in college when after a few mistakes on my part, I could see myself getting kicked out of school just around the corner, and I had no idea what I was going to do about it. I was unsure of God’s plan for me. For me, those were two of the biggest storms that I have ever faced, and before I tell you about what got me through it, I want to look at how the Apostle Paul handled some of the storms in his life (literally!).

Read Acts 27:1-26

This is just part one of an amazing story, but the historian Luke documents firsthand what Paul and his companions were going through. Paul was on his way to Rome to stand trial before Caesar, he had been imprisoned or under house arrest for quite some time now, not having the freedom to minister the way he wanted. In order to get to Rome, they took the fastest means of travel, sailing across the Mediterranean Sea. Luke then goes on to describe the storm in great detail as well as the hopelessness that the sailors encountered. Acts 27:20 tells us, “When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.” Luke is describing his own feelings as much as he is describing the sailors, he didn’t think they were going to make it. But how does Paul respond? He urges them to take heart because God had told him that none of them would die from the storm. He says in Acts 27:25, “So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told.”
During the storms of his life, Paul banked on the faithfulness of God. He was completely convinced that God would come through and deliver in a big way. And if you read on in Acts, God does not disappoint, he saves all the men despite the boat being shipwrecked! In the storms of my own life, it took me awhile to realize the solution was to completely be dependent on God’s promises. Whether it was my dad’s death or being kicked out of college, I had lost sight of the promises that God had made me. Even as He was showing me his faithfulness in plain sight, it took me awhile to realize it. The storms are coming, I’d be lying if I told you they weren’t. But the good news is that God’s faithfulness shines through the storms, and He’s promised to leave us or abandon us. Hallelujah! Praise the Lord!

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Thank God and his never ending love for you.