Hope Chapel
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Sermon Videos
    • Parents Corner
    • CREW Blog
  • About
    • Children's Ministries
    • Youth Ministries
    • Connected Organizations
  • Calendar
  • Donate
  • Contact
    • Join Our Newsletter
  • Blog

Hope Chapel Blog

Learning and living the Way of Jesus!

‘Trust God…not the boat!’

8/4/2021

0 Comments

 
Picture

Daily Devotional – Wednesday, August 4, 2021

“But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down.” (Acts 27:22, NLT)

I love a good lightning storm—with the whole sky lighting up followed by the rolling boom of thunder. However, not everyone feels the same way. My grandmother, my father’s mother, would panic whenever a storm blew up. Whereas I have always found myself in a place of relative safety during these storms, she experienced the devastation that can come with lightning when their home caught fire. Undoubtedly, the safety from which I have observed these storms has a lot to do with my comfort level. Would I be so appreciative if I found myself out in an open field during a storm…not at all! I derive much comfort from being able to watch a storm from the relative safety of my home—watching it, but not truly in danger from it.

But what of the storms we find ourselves thrust into the middle of—the ones that threaten to sink us? Paul found himself in the middle of a storm that had raged non-stop for two weeks. The sailors had done all they could think to do to keep the ship afloat—they had dropped the anchors, they had thrown some of the equipment overboard, they had even poured their cargo of grain into the sea; but they themselves were no closer to being saved than before. When the prospect that the ship would crash onto a sandbar became a real possibility, they attempted to board the lifeboat; they were still trusting a boat to keep them alive. But what had God told them through Paul? The ship will go down, but everyone will be saved. To a weathered sailor, this proclamation would have appeared as sheer nonsense. You do not survive a stormy sea without a boat…you sink…you drown!
​
The sailors trusted their lives to a ship destined for destruction; Paul trusted his life to a much more secure source—God. It is one thing to experience a stormy sea with confidence when you’ve got a boat…quite another when there is no boat. That’s when we are forced to trust God…entirely. It also serves as an opportunity for us to really challenge our notions of where our trust lies. Is it really God, or are we still hanging onto some semblance of self-sufficiency? Do we possess the same level of trust and peace when we find ourselves truly in danger or is our trust merely that of an observer? Do we remain calm to a point, but allow panic to set in when the boat is taken away? God wants us to know His peace in the storm, not just when we are watching it from a place of safety, but even as we are forced to watch our 'boats' sink.
~ Pastor Jane
0 Comments

Your comment will be posted after it is approved.


Leave a Reply.

    Pastor Jane 

    First licensed for pastoral ministry in 1994, Pastor Jane Peck has served in camp and church ministries in three denominations, five provinces and in a variety of roles.  Her most recent position is that of Pastor at Hope Chapel which she began in 2020.  She is excited to see what God can and will do in the days to come!

    Archives

    March 2022
    February 2022
    January 2022
    December 2021
    November 2021
    October 2021
    September 2021
    August 2021
    July 2021
    June 2021
    May 2021
    April 2021
    March 2021
    February 2021
    January 2021
    December 2020
    November 2020
    October 2020
    September 2020
    August 2020
    July 2020
    June 2020
    May 2020

    Categories

    All
    Addiction
    Agape Love
    Angels
    Armour Of God
    Correction
    Creation
    Devotionals
    Disappointment
    Discipleship
    Faith
    Fear
    Filling Up
    Forgiveness
    Generosity
    Gifts Of The Spirit
    Gospel
    Holy Spirit
    Honour
    Humility
    Idolatry
    Jesus
    Justice
    Lent
    Love
    Meditations
    Mental Health
    Mercy
    News And Updates
    Patience
    Peace
    Prayer
    Prayer Emphasis Week
    Pride
    Protection
    Redemption
    Rejection
    Rejoicing
    Relationships
    Repentance
    Revelations
    Self Worth
    Series: Be Different
    Series: Doing Life With Jesus
    Series: In The Beginning
    Series: “Our Family Tree Through The Bible In 2021"
    Series: The Bible Jesus' Story
    Servanthood
    Sin
    Suffering
    Sunday Notes
    Thanksgiving
    The Great Commission
    The Trinity
    The Word
    Wisdom
    Worship

    More Blogs

    Parents Corner
    CREW Blog
Powered by Create your own unique website with customizable templates.
  • Home
  • Blog
    • Sermon Videos
    • Parents Corner
    • CREW Blog
  • About
    • Children's Ministries
    • Youth Ministries
    • Connected Organizations
  • Calendar
  • Donate
  • Contact
    • Join Our Newsletter
  • Blog