Terminal Resolve

No one had eaten for a long time. Finally, Paul called the crew together and said, “Men, you should have listened to me in the first place and not left Crete. You would have avoided all this damage and loss. But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’ So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said. But we will be shipwrecked on an island.” [Acts 27.21-26]

Faith in the midst of a shipwreck. Now, that is indeed faith! How determined was Paul that even though he could see they were in serious trouble and their lives were all in jeopardy that he remained confident that God was going to get him to Rome?

Fast forward to my life... I feel like God has spoken to me on occasion. And yet, when the storms come, the first thing I do is begin to question whether or not I actually heard God in the first place.

Just how far do we take this perseverance?

I think perhaps the problem lies in the fact that today we are so uncertain of God's voice and leadership of the Spirit in the first place. We 'say' we are following God, but in reality, it is more like we are following a 'whim'. Maybe it's God (we sure hope so), maybe its not. So, naturally, when difficulties arise, we back off. It is a pretty sad and pitiful spiritual existence. Welcome to my world...

And yet, how are we to ever learn to hear and obey God unless we try? Our greatest down fall is that we are entirely too afraid of failure. We would rather not try at all than to have tried and failed. And, what's more, in the church, we have absolutely no tolerance whatsoever for those who 'exercise' their faith. So, we develop stupid doctrine to shroud our unbelief.

Hmmm.

Father, I want to risk all with my faith. "If I perish, I perish..." sure sounds good, but I am asking that You would help me come to that place of terminal resolve.