“So take courage! For I believe God.
It will be just as he said.”
So, how bad was it, Paul?
While some leaders display celebrity photographs and others catalog achievements, Paul tallied his tribulations. The apostle Paul knew a thing or two about hard times. The inventory of his “inconveniences” is impressive:
Five times I received at the hands of the Jews the forty lashes less one. Three times I was beaten with rods. Once I was stoned. Three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I was adrift at sea; on frequent journeys, in danger from rivers, danger from robbers, danger from my own people, danger from Gentiles, danger in the city, danger in the wilderness, danger at sea, danger from false brothers; in toil and hardship, through many a sleepless night, in hunger and thirst, often without food, in cold and exposure.
2 Corinthians 11:24-27
Luke’s account in Acts 27 brings to mind one of those shipwrecks and the dangers that come from dangling feet in an open sea (cue the theme from Jaws here). Paul is at sea, under guard because he is under arrest (falsely), crowded onto a ship with 276 people on board – many of them also prisoners. If that’s not bad enough, they are getting swept along by a Nor’easter, a menacing storm that threatens their lives and will ultimately destroy their ship.
I don’t know about you, but at that moment, I’m not Mr. Rogers cheery. For one, I get seasick; and for two, we haven’t eaten in two weeks. Paul seems unfazed. Two times he says,
“But take courage!”
The word, courage, means to “be of good cheer,” to “show positive passion.”
Paul, are you out of your mind?!
Not at all! Actually, he was the poster child for levelheadedness. Paul was simply letting God’s word, not his circumstances, dictate his emotions. In Acts 27:25, Paul says, “So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said.”
Faith is not devoid of feelings . . . of fear or confidence, anger or happiness, disgust, trust, or anticipation. It is, however, the captain, not the servant, of those emotions. Faith refuses to let emotions dictate circumstances, feelings, relationships, challenges, bewilderment, hard times and crazy people.
Faith chooses to believe God. It will be just as he said!
His word is true and it always comes true (John 17:17; Proverbs 30:5)
He never leaves us or forsakes us (Hebrews 13:5)
He is working all things together for our good (Romans 8:28)
He never misses the slightest detail (Psalm 139:1-6)
Yeah, I hear you, but Paul was floating like a jellyfish in the ocean! And sometimes I feel like I am too! True, but Paul came back to God’s providential care:
9 If I take the wings of the morning
and dwell in the uttermost parts of the sea,
10 even there your hand shall lead me,
and your right hand shall hold me.
Psalm 139
You see, whether positive or negative, when I allow my emotions to rule, I become a servant, even a prisoner — of those emotions. And whether it is fear that drives me under the covers or my over-confidence that sets me up to stub my toe or fall flat on my face; my emotions — real as they are — are not trustworthy gauges of reality.
That’s why Paul refused to listen to them, believe them, or bend his will to them. Faith chooses to believe God. Faith knows . . .
It will be just as He said!