Stay in the Boat: God’s Promises Won’t Let You Down!

As Paul sails for Rome as a prisoner in Acts 27, the voyage became dangerous. A tempestuous wind struck down and caused a bumpy ride for the passengers. The situation felt so hopeless that scripture says, "all hope of being saved was abandoned."

I am sure many of us can some what relate to this story metaphorically. Ever been in a storm of life that felt so uncontrollable, you felt tossed and turned and bruised from one heartache to another? Feeling as if, even though you had a white knuckle grip on the steering wheel, the situation was completely out of your control? Maybe it was being driven by the death of a loved one…a divorce… an illness… a job loss...

So devastating you just felt in the dark, helpless, and tempted to abandon hope?

Back to our story...In this situation, Paul told them: " I urge you to take heart, for there will be no loss of life among you, but only of the ship. For this very night there stood before me an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I worship, and he said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul; you must stand before Caesar. And behold, God has granted you all those who sail with you.’ So take heart, men, for I have faith in God that it will be exactly as I have been told. But we must run aground on some island.”

The sailors actually listened to Paul this time… In the beginning of the chapter, Paul actually tried to warn them not to even take this journey because it would end up being dangerous, but the those in charge decided to anyways and they ended up in the situation. Now suffering, their eyes and ears were open to what Paul had to say.

As they were getting close to land, the sailors noted that the boat might crash and run on the rocks. So they began to lower the ships boat into the sea to escape (likely leaving the prisoners on board to die).

But Paul tells the centurion, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”

And the soldiers responded to this by cutting away the ropes of the ship's boat and let it go.

Paul again encouraged them again saying, Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.” And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat. Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves. All 276 people in the ship.

Eventually the ship crashed on to land, and they all made it to safety (check out Acts 27) for more details.

Paul's example in this story stood out to me for two reasons:

1. Sometimes you may need to be the courageous voice of hope who reminds people of the goodness of God and that He does not abandon his people, even in seemingly dangerous/hopeless storms of life. Paul encouraged those on the boat saying, "take some food, it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any you. They were encouraged and ate some food themselves (all 276 of them). We can encourage people in the same way today. We know that God knows the very hairs on our head ( Matthew 10:30 ), that He keeps track of our sorrows and tears (Psalm 56:8), and heals broken hearts and binds up wounds (Psalm 147:3). Sometimes we forget that and need a reminder and sometimes we need to be the one the stands up, like Paul, and gives the reminder. Someone who says, "I have faith in God, that He will do exactly as He says, despite these current circumstances." A modern day example: "though this situation is terrible, I have faith God will pull us through because His infallible word promises it, and I believe Him."

2. Knowing our mission and being confident in our salvation is what fuels our hope, faith, trust, and confidence in God. Paul knew that God had called Him to stand before Caesar and he believed God when he said no one along his journey would perish along his journey to get there. As a result, he was confident in where he was headed and chose to believe God and take him at his word, demonstrating radical confidence. It is that kind of confidence, confidence in being a child of God who knows his/her mission and believes God's word, that tends to draw people in cause them to listen. Now don't get me wrong, showing that confidence during the trials of life doesn’t mean never admitting life is hard, or pretending life as a Christian is always sunshine and rainbows (it is not, sometimes it is devastating). Paul often admitted his weaknesses. It simply means showing we know Whose we are, (what boat we are in metaphorically speaking), Who is control of the ship, and where we are headed despite the suffering and storms we meet along the way.