“I believe God. It will be just as He said.” Acts 27:25 NLT
“Neither man nor circumstance can prevent God’s intention being achieved.”
My thoughts today are about “resting assured.”
Understand this: everything will not always be as you wish it were, but it will always be as God said it would. The first part might not be the most encouraging news for you, but the second half of that statement should be very assuring. Neither man nor circumstance can prevent God’s intention being achieved. God may allow men or circumstances temporarily to delay or distract from His plan, but He remains sovereign and His will supreme.
My Dad gave me good advice about the character and authority of God when I was in college preparing for ministry. He essentially said there would be people in a place to make decisions during the course of my life and ministry that at the time might threaten to circumvent God’s will in a situation consequential to me. At such a moment, I was to remember that God rules and overrules as He wills. Dad said, “God will allow no one the right to make a decision that would rob you of God’s highest and best. Only you can make choices that will lessen God’s highest will for your life!” You can rest assured you are safe in God’s hands and your future is secure in His will, whatever others’ actions or opinions may otherwise indicate at the moment. See Isaiah 26:3-4 NIV.
The Apostle Paul was a prisoner enroute to Rome to plead his case to Caesar. Read Acts 27:1-28:10. In an untimely season of the year for safe seas, and contrary to Paul’s warning that ill-fortune awaited their decision to sail, the ship’s captain and the ship’s owner decided to sail anyway. Probably commerce more than caution prompted their choice. They soon faced a violent storm that saw fearless soldiers and seasoned sailors despair for their safety.
The storm was no one’s fault. Storms happen to the best and worst of people. Read Acts 27:6-14. There were three very different reasons people found themselves in the same difficult situation. The captain and ship’s owner were in this predicament because of an unwise decision they themselves made, against other advice. The soldiers and sailors were in jeopardy while just doing their duty. Paul and the prisoners were in this menacing situation, due to others’ decisions. Whatever the reasons, God was in control – merciful to the captain and ship’s owner, compassionate on the soldiers and sailors, and protective of Paul and the prisoners.
Don’t Panic; calm your fears, quiet your heart, and listen for God’s voice in the crisis. Here’s the story from Paul. “You should have listened to me in the first place . . and avoided all this injury and loss. But take courage . . last night God to whom I belong and whom I serve said, ‘God in His goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’ So take courage! I believe God. It will be just as He said. But we will be shipwrecked on an island.” Acts 27:21-26 NLT. Yes, things may not always be perfect, but you can rest assured in God’s perfect will, even in such times. Some things are expendable, some irreplaceable. What you have, God can protect; what you have lost, God can restore.
Men’s choices and nature’s forces could wreck a ship, but they could not take a single life before God’s time! Of this you can rest assured; life will be as God says not as you or others think it to be. Imagine your living every day with the secure conviction your life and ultimate well-being were safely in God’s loving hands and sheltered by His perfect will. See Romans 12:1-2 NKJV.
My prayer for you today is that God protect you from others’ folly and faithlessness.