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. [Acts 27.21]
The thing is, people don't tend to seek out or listen to the advice of prisoners...
In keeping with my posts over the last couple of days, had Paul listened to the warnings, and not gone to Jerusalem, and not been incarcerated there, and given the Holy Spirit time to reveal the need for him to go to Rome, this trip might have happened sooner and therefore avoided this late season storm and devastation. At this point, a course of events was set in motion that would make what should have been an easy move for Paul very difficult.
Even still, we see God's grace upon Paul in promising he would get to Rome and the lives of everyone with him would be spared.
I think it is important that we consider these things because we deal with the same issues in our own lives. God's will will be done and, any time we start to inject our will into it, we do nothing but make difficulties for ourselves and all those around us.
So, I don't want to pick on Paul - no doubt he was a much more spiritual person than am I. But I want to see and learn from his experience that the Holy Spirit gave ample warning that trouble was ahead - trouble that quite possibly could have been avoided.
God's will requires only one thing from us: obedience.
Father, help me to simply obey the leading of Your Holy Spirit. Help me avoid the pitfalls associated with my own plans injected into Yours.
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