READING: Acts 27-28, Romans 1-2
Imagine the scene. A prisoner in a storm-tossed ship—a ship battered by an ongoing storm and filled with sailors hungry and fearing death—stood to speak to them. His message? An angel had appeared to him the night before and promised him the people would make it to Rome without loss of life (even though they would lose the ship). The message was surely an unexpected one for the sailors.
Paul was that prisoner, and he trusted God’s word to him. In fact, he said to the sailors, “So take courage, men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me” (Acts 27:25).
“Just the way it was told to me”–what faith that statement illustrates! Indeed, what faith it is that took the risk to trust in the present on the basis of what God promised for the immediate future. Paul was unafraid to speak what he had heard.
This was no “I think” or “I hope” or “just maybe” position. No, this was conviction, the “evidence of things unseen” (Heb 11:1). It was a man of God trusting through the Spirit of God that God would fulfill the Word that He had given. It was courageous faith.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you live with that kind of trusting, risky, public faith?
PRAYER: “Grant me mercy, Father, to trust Your Word without hesitation.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Romans 3-7
