By: Steve Wilmot
Looking at their situation, everyone aboard the ship screamed, “We’re gonna die!” The Apostle Paul and 275 others were sailing to Rome when a storm with hurricane-force winds swept down upon them.
After several days of violent battering from the tempest and every attempt to bring the ship under control and to safe harbor exhausted, “we finally gave up all hope of being saved” (Acts 27.20).
But then, one night, something happened. Next morning, Paul gathered his frightened, exhausted, and hopeless shipmates to tell them the events of the previous night.
“Last night an angel of the God whose I am stood beside me and said, ‘Do not be afraid, Paul… God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.’ So, keep up your courage, men, for I believe God that it will happen just as he told me” (Acts 27.23-25).
Incredible. Skilled sailors who had been through desperate storms before gave up hope in this one. But Paul takes God at his word. “I believe God.”
When we face tough times, we need to turn to the Word of God for a word, a promise from God. Then we must stand on that word with confidence. Events and circumstances will urge us to give up hope, like the sailors on Paul’s ship.
But when we get a word from God, we can stand on it and quiet our hearts in the knowledge God will do what he said.
“God is not a man that he should lie, nor a son of man that he should change his mind. Does he speak and not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?” (Numbers 23.19).
When Paul announced he believed God, nothing changed in the storm’s intensity. In fact, the Bible reports it raged on for at least another week.
What must have gone through Paul’s mind? The wind and waves told him they’d never survive. Experienced sailors confirmed it. But God said everyone would be alright. A mighty test of faith waged in Paul’s mind, like it often does in ours.
Perhaps Paul remembered what he wrote about Abraham in Romans 4.19-21 concerning Abraham’s reaction during a test of his faith.
Decades earlier, God promised he and his wife Sarah would have a son. All God’s future promises to Abraham rested on the fulfillment of this one promise.
Decades passed, and still Abraham waited for God to keep his word. Finally, he and Sarah grew too old to have children.
What of God’s promise now? Paul writes Abraham “faced the fact that his body was as good as dead, and that Sarah’s womb was also dead.”
Those were the facts, and they sounded final. No amount of wishful thinking would change them. So, what did Abraham do? Read what Paul wrote.
“Yet Abraham did not waver through unbelief regarding the promise of God but gave glory to God being fully persuaded that God had the power to do what he had promised.”
Wow! His faith didn’t waver despite his circumstances. He was fully—not partially or mostly, but fully—persuaded God would do what he’d promised. That’s what I want people to say about me. Don’t you too?
Abraham’s age told him a son was impossible, but he didn’t listen. Instead, he clung to a God who had never broken a promise made to him. Or anyone else he knew. Abraham, like Paul in his grave situation, believed God!
When you choose to stand on God’s Word, you may not see immediate results. Faith in God doesn’t mean quick answers.
Will you continue to believe God even when everything inside you tells you your faith is useless? Foolish, even. The joke’s on you.
Friend, that’s the pivotal question. Do you believe God in the face of setbacks, the duration of the testing, or hostile circumstances?
Here’s what you must know and remember. God is faithful. He will do what he promises regardless of the obstacles. He is faithful no matter what happens or doesn’t happen immediately.
Satan wants you to surrender hope and give up on God’s word to you. Peter told us what to do when Satan attacks our trust in God.
“Your enemy the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, looking for someone to devour. Resist him, standing firm in the faith” (1 Peter 5.8-9).
When Satan questions your trust in God’s word to you, Peter’s advice is to stand firm in what you know God said. Review his track record to you and others you know. Has he ever failed to do what he promised he would do?
God saved the lives of everyone on Paul’s ship as he promised. God gave Abraham and Sarah the baby he promised them even though they were infertile and elderly.
He’ll keep his promises to you as well. Stand firm like Paul did. Like Abraham did. Like you can do, if only you’ll choose to do so.
Declare your choice loud and clear: I BELIEVE GOD!
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Steve Wilmot is a former Edgerton, Ohio area pastor who now seeks “to still bear fruit in old age” through writing. He is the author of seven books designed to assist believers to make steady progress on their spiritual journey.
