By Dave Grant
Acts 27:13-20 (NIV)
When a gentle south wind began to blow, they saw their opportunity; so they weighed anchor and sailed along the shore of Crete. Before very long, 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 we gave way to it and were driven along. As we passed to the lee of a small island called Cauda, we were hardly able to make the lifeboat secure, so the men hoisted it aboard. Then they passed ropes under the ship itself to hold it together. Because they were afraid they would run aground on the sandbars of Syrtis, they lowered the sea anchor and let the ship be driven along. We took such a violent battering from the storm that the next day they began to throw the cargo overboard. On the third day, they threw the ship’s tackle overboard with their own hands. When neither sun nor stars appeared for many days and the storm continued raging, we finally gave up all hope of being saved.
I recall the time I worked as a research assistant at Tennessee Tech doing a bald eagle re-population project with Cherokee National Forest on South Holston Lake. My partner and I went out on our pontoon boat one afternoon and went quite a ways upstream before we turned around and then saw the looming storm clouds. We made like bandits to get back to the southern end of the lake and back to our campground that served as headquarters. The only problem was that our pontoons had developed a leak and we had let them fill with too much water, so as we traveled, our engine exhaust went under water and killed the engine. We had an emergency oar—one oar. Paddling a boat with pontoons full of water and only one oar was akin to being up the river without a paddle. As a ferocious storm hit we got as close to shore as we could, dropped anchor, and swam to safety. And I don’t really swim.
So I can’t imagine being in Paul’s situation when he was caught in a storm, where neither sun nor stars appeared for 14 days and he'd taken such a beating that he'd all but given up hope of being saved. Most of us would be terrified asking, “God where are you?” After all, Paul was spreading the gospel, and he gets arrested in Jerusalem and held for far too long and then sent to be heard by the emperor in Rome. God where are you? Don’t you want me to keep preaching?
If you read the rest of the story in Acts 27-28, you see how the Gospel was shared in a snake bite around a campfire and through healing mercies while the passengers were stranded on the island of Malta. And eventually the Gospel was shared in Rome.
John Wesley tried to bring the Gospel to Georgia, and aboard the ship getting there, he too encountered a massive storm that shredded the main sail and flooded the decks. He was terrified, and likely asking God where He was. But Wesley noticed a group of Germans were singing praise hymns as if nothing else mattered. This led Wesley to question these Moravians as to the hope they had. It resulted in Wesley’s Aldersgate St. experience where he felt his heart strangely warmed and he knew that God’s grace was real and was for him. It also led to Wesley’s Fetter Lane experience where at an all-night prayer meeting he experienced the outpouring of the Holy Spirit that brought an awakening to Great Britain.
Sometimes we find ourselves in situations we would rather not be in, and during many of those times, we may be asking if God is there. Does God really care. God, aren’t you going to do something? Do you even love me, God? It is during those times that God prepares us for something greater. We live in a time when we wonder if God is still with us. Violence. Disagreements within government, within society, within our churches. A spirit of offense. A self-serving spirit.
During Paul’s time aboard that storm-ravaged ship, I’m convinced Paul was praying. Paul had already received a message from God that he would be arrested, that he would go to Rome, and that those aboard that ship would not perish. During the storm off the coast of Georgia, no doubt John Wesley was in prayer—a prayer that intensified after he returned to Europe and visited a Moravian 24/7 prayer movement at Hernhutt that lasted for 100 years and sent over 300 missionaries around the world.
I wonder what God would do if we humbled ourselves, repented, and sought God’s face. I pray for a great awakening in our churches. I pray for the veil that is covering our eyes to be lifted this year, to be awakened to God’s grace and glory, to be empowered by the Holy Spirit in such a way that it creates the perfect storm in our community and in our nation that makes others look upon us as Wesley looked upon the Moravians saying, “What do you have that I don’t have, and how do I get it?” Will you join in the prayer for the next Great Awakening?
Walk with the King and be a blessing today.
Passage Reading Guide: Acts 27 & Psalm 8