You Will Survive

After a long week, I am always looking for something to pick me up.  Wednesday night REfresh Bible study certainly provides that for me.  Each week I walk away with practical solutions to an impractical world.  It’s only fitting that in the week leading up to the celebration of our church’s 147^th anniversary that we were given encouragement to survive.

This week we journeyed to Acts 27:13-26.  There we find Paul on a ship facing a storm of epic proportions.  At this point, Paul is a prisoner on the way to see Caesar.  When the journey begins, the winds are blowing softly.  Nothing out of the ordinary has taken place.  Things quickly change.  The winds increase in intensity.  The gentle wind is replaced by a tempestuous wind.  His smooth sailing has been replaced by calamity.  Isn’t that reminiscent of many of our lives?  Everything is smooth sailing until it isn’t.

We have a better shot at surviving life’s storms when we learn to expect the unexpected.  People don’t get through life without having their ship rocked at some point.  And quite often the biggest storms that we experience are not the ones that we see coming.  Instead of throwing up our hands in disgust, we should always be aware that life has ebbs and flows.  Paul was on assignment from God and so are we.  We do not get to skip out on the storms. 

As the storm progressed, the sailors began to throw cargo overboard.  The storm raged on and on with no end in sight.  In order to prevent the ship from sinking, the sailors decided to lighten their load.  They wanted to get rid of any cargo that could potentially weigh them down.  Listen, if we are going to survive life’s storms, we need to take inventory of habits and relationships that may be weighing our ship down.  We cannot stay afloat when storms arise if we are holding on to negative patterns.  We should throw gossip overboard and root around in that cargo for concern.  Lying should be tossed out and truth and faith should be brought up on the deck.  We need that if we have a chance of surviving.

Of course, the storm continued to rage…as storms often do.  The storm stayed far longer than they could have imagined.  The sailors tried every trick in the book.  They did all that they knew to do.  They lost hope.  Paul stood and began to restore that hope.  He let them know that God had sent an angel to him that very night.  The angel reassured Paul that all on the ship would survive the storm.  Although the storm was raging, God had a plan and purpose.  Paul would survive this storm because he had a mission.  I get caught up in my feelings.  You know I can be found guilty of trying to figure out when storm will end.  Even though I know I will survive, frequent reminders of God’s promise help me weather the storms.

Storms come for us.  They may be financial, spiritual, physical, relational, or emotional.  They come and they rage.  They threaten to tear apart the ships that we are using to sail through this life.  Take heart my friends and be of good cheer.  God’s promise for our life is certain.  You will survive.   #wepreach