At Living Proof Live in Pittsburgh last month, Beth taught from Acts 27. I was immediately intrigued by the passage because honestly, I’d never really studied it before (I’M JUST SAYIN’), so I couldn’t wait to hear Beth’s message.
Well.
In Acts 27, Paul and Luke are on a ship headed toward Italy when Paul, who realizes that conditions are prime for a “perfect storm,” warns the men on the ship that their voyage is going to be “disastrous” and they might be better off hanging out in the harbor for awhile. The other men don’t agree with him and vote to keep sailing.
At first things seem to be working out for the guys on the ship. Verse 13 tells us that “a gentle south wind began to blow, [and] they thought they had obtained what they wanted.”
That really resonated with me: they thought they had obtained what they wanted.
But right after they thought they had it made in the shade, their circumstances changed completely in verses 14-15: “a wind of hurricane force, called the ‘northeaster,’ swept down from the island. The ship was caught by the storm and could not head into the wind; so [they] gave way to it and were driven along.”
Beth talked about how so often that is the case with us; we get to a point in our lives where we think we have everything we want, and then the clouds come and the rains fall and we feel like we are simply being “driven along” by our circumstances. We give way because it’s not just one thing going on – it’s several different storms colliding. And it can feel hopeless.
I don’t know about y’all, but I have been there.
Beth went on to say that there’s one critical thing we forget sometimes when we’re in the middle of an exceedingly difficult time: the storm is for us and not against us. We need not forget who has ordained that stormy time in our lives; Beth said, “God is the one who has you in the storm. Settle it. It’s to get you some place you’d have never gotten otherwise.”
Beth closed Saturday morning by putting the perfect storms of life into even greater perspective: “every bit of your journey is getting you where God wants you to go.” She went on to say that “the point of every perfect storm is to see the work of God through us unhindered: no more bondage, no more strongholds, completely unhindered.”
The storm is about something.
The storm is for you and not against you.
And ultimately, the storm is for your good and His glory.