🌿BREATHE TRUTH🌿
“Then the sailors tried to abandon the ship…But Paul said to the commanding officer and the soldier, “You will all die unless the sailors stay aboard.” So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and let it drift away. –Acts 27:30-32
🌿BELIEVE THE REAL TRUTH🌿
The setting: Hurricane-like winds.
The mission: Paul is sailing for Rome under Roman custody with the purpose of appealing to Augustus Ceasar about his unfair arrest.
The timing: It is midnight on the fourteenth night of a raging storm. Four steps are taken to circumvent the ship’s potential crash near an island.
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Lift and hoist the lifeboats so it’s not dragging behind.
Loop ropes around the hull of the ship to strengthen it.
Lower the anchor to slow the ship’s movement off-course.
Let cargo overboard to lighten the ship.
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Yet the ship is still being slammed closer to the coastline. The sailors fear they will be driven against the rocks. More anchors are thrown over. Then they pray for daylight. But nothing works. Will power and the will of their idol gods can’t rescue them.
Fear + No Faith = Flee.
This is exactly what happens.
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“Then the sailors tried to abandon the ship.”
Testing the water depth, the sailors discover they are fast arriving closer to the shore. Panic ensues and the lifeboats are seen as a way out.
When we exhaust our physical efforts and it doesn’t work out, we walk away from the endeavor. We do this with people, places, and priorities. Staying is harder than leaving. Giving to God and trusting He can do something greater is harder than taking the highway. Balancing priorities that conflict is harder than simply dropping the whole juggling act altogether. Life, love, and learning is harder than we processed. We see the temporal in front of us, and if it’s too hard, we quit.
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“But Paul said to the commanding offer and the soldiers, “You will all die unless the sailors stay aboard.”
The night before, an angel of God gives Paul assurance that although he will be shipwrecked, “God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.” (Acts 27:24). This means the entire crew and passengers must remain together. If they go off the ship on their own, they will not survive. Often, the situation warrants that we stay in the battle, surrender to God’s Hand, and see God handle the ending.
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“So the soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboat and let it drift away.”
The Roman entourage of soldiers cut the ropes to the lifeboats so no one could use them to escape. This ensures that everyone on board stays together. Paul is going to heed God’s way. If we desire God’s will above all else, sometimes, we have to release the lifeboat that we use as insurance if God doesn’t work out. What is your lifeboat? Is it an emotional, psychological, or physical lifeboat? Is it another relationship, another reality, another raison d’être? Do you trust God enough to cut the rope to your man-made lifeboat?
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By all means, take the necessary precautions during storms to stay afloat. Stow away anything that drags you down. Strengthen the parameters. Secure anchors into the water. Seek to lighten the load. But….
- Don’t trust your contingency plans more than you trust God.
- Don’t rely on your contingency plans as an additional insurance option: If God doesn’t deliver, choose from Plan B (Lifeboat B), Plan C (Lifeboat C)…..
- Don’t allow your contingency plans, aka lifeboat, to become a replacement for faith in God to navigate you through the storm.
Ultimately, without God as the Captain of our lives, we may not only shipwreck, but we will be lost and left alone to find our way to our final destination.
So cut the ropes.
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Copyright 2019