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Our faith tends to be cool, calm, and
collected—until a crisis clobbers us. Then we go from our feet to our
knees, and God becomes more than someone who “helps” us: He is our
only hope.
Luke apparently spoke for himself, and Paul
too, when he said, “We finally gave up all hope of being saved” (Acts
27:20). That is probably why the visiting angel greeted Paul by
announcing, “Do not be afraid, Paul” (v.24).
I’m glad for that glimpse of the apostle’s
humanity. He is on such a pedestal in my mind that I would expect to
find him standing bravely in the bow of the boat, like George
Washington crossing the Delaware. Instead, Paul seems to be as
terrified as everyone else—and as desperate. In his desperation he
was met by “the God whose I am and whom I serve” (v.23).
Paul models for us a survival skill in a storm
— getting desperate with God. When the bottom drops out, it is easy
to get desperate. The sailors on Paul’s ship sensed that they were
headed for the rocks. So . . .
In an attempt to escape from the ship, the
sailors let the lifeboat down into the sea . . . . Then Paul said, .
. . “Unless these men stay with the ship, you cannot be saved.” So
the soldiers cut the ropes that held the lifeboat and let it fall
away (vv.30-32). Often our panic makes us reach for a lifeboat
instead of the Lord. My lifeboats have usually just made bigger
messes. I have associated with the wrong people, spent unwisely,
changed routines too soon, pushed people I love too hard. A storm can
make us panic or make us pray.
It is when our points of reference disappear
like the sailors’ stars that we learn what prayer really means.
Stripped of any possibility of self-rescue, we throw ourselves on the
Lord. Our praying is not controlled, predictable, third person; we
finally open our religious hand and let God fill it with something
supernatural.
At certain points in your life with Him, God
will strip you of all other resources, leaving you only Himself. Then
you will discover, in the words of a wise old saint, “You never know
Jesus is all you need until Jesus is all you’ve got.”
And then there is peace, no matter how long
the storm lasts. In the words of King David, you can proclaim:
When anxiety was great within me, Your
consolation brought joy to my soul (Ps. 94:19).
So, today, cut your lifeboat loose and let it
go and, in desperation, cry out to the only one who can really save
you - the one who first loved us and has promised that "I will
never leave you nor forsake you." (Heb 13:5; Deut 31:6).
Curtis
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