FBC Daily Devotional – January 18, 2022

Faith Baptist Church

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Well, good morning, good Tuesday morning to you. I hope your week has gotten off to a good start, and that you're just rejoicing in the

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Lord today. What has He taught you from His Word recently? Are you, by any chance, following along in the

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Bible reading schedule? If so, you read today in Acts chapter 27, and that's really kind of an exciting passage of Scripture.

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You know, Paul the Apostle, and those with him, and a whole bunch of other passengers are caught in a terrible storm at sea, and it looks like all is lost.

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It looks like they're going to lose the ship, they're going to lose their lives, and so forth. But as you read the story, you find out that that's not the case.

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But a few things in this account stood out to me that I just thought

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I'd share, and it might be an encouragement to us. One of them is that, though it may not be welcome news to the unconverted around us, it's possible, and at times it's true, that God will spare the unconverted on account of those who are

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His children. In other words, because God's child is surrounded by some unconverted people, and God wants to save and spare the life of and protect

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His own child, that those around Him are spared who might otherwise not be.

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Let me show you this. In verse 24, Paul stands up and he's encouraging everybody on the ship in the middle of the storm.

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And he said, God came to me, He spoke to me, and He said, Don't be afraid, Paul. You must be brought before Caesar.

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And indeed, God has granted you all those who sail with you. Now, who among him were converted?

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None of them. I mean, Paul had a couple of his own fellow servants of the

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Lord with him on this ship, but the vast majority of the people were unconverted.

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Some were prisoners, soldiers, just simple sailors and merchantmen.

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And yet, God told Paul, Let these guys know that I'm saving their life on account of you, because I want you to stand before Caesar.

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Now, we don't always know how often that's the case, but I find that to be quite intriguing and encouraging that sometimes, because God wants to save His own, spare

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His own child, He will spare those around them, even though they don't appreciate it and don't necessarily like it.

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You see this also in verses 42 and 43, where it says the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners.

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So on this boat, the boat had finally run aground and was getting battered by the waves, was going to break up, and so they needed to get off the ship and try to make it to land.

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And it says the soldier's plan was to kill the prisoners. They didn't want any of the prisoners to escape. Well, Paul, of course, was one of those prisoners.

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And so that's what they wanted to do. But verse 43 says the centurion, wanting to save Paul, kept them from their purpose and commanded that those who could swim should jump overboard first and get to land.

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So here's another case where Paul, the child of God, is spared.

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And because he, you know, the commander wants to spare Paul, he makes sure that all the other prisoners are saved as well.

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None of the prisoners are going to be executed because I want to save Paul. You know, God will do that in his providence and in his own way.

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He will see to it that those around the child of God are spared heartache, misery, even destruction of life because he wants to save his own.

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Now, that's not universally true and it can't be claimed. In other words,

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I can't go around saying, you know, God's not going to send any tornadoes to Sterling because there are

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Christians here and he's not going to let any of the Christians suffer. So the citizens of Sterling aren't going to suffer.

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I can't make that claim. And the fact of the matter is that sometimes calamities come and disaster strikes and even believers suffer through those things, suffer in those things, and they can lose their life.

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But I find this particular account encouraging and a blessing to know how

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God cares for his own. And it just indicates that God doesn't allow anything to come into their lives that will cause them harm unless he himself wants it to come to pass.

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Another thing in this passage I find interesting in verses 31 and 32 is that sometimes, certainly not always and probably not most of the time, but sometimes those who will refuse to listen to God's servant in the calm, you know, when everything's going smoothly, they don't want to hear what

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God's servant has to say. But when it comes to a crisis, then they'll listen.

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You see this in verses 31 and 2. Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.

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Now, the reason that's important is that, you know, Paul warned the centurion not to take this ship in the first place, that it wasn't safe to do so.

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But the centurion said, nope, we're going to go. And so he gets them on the ship and off they go, and then they run into the storm, and now the lives of all of them are threatened.

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And so he didn't listen to Paul when everything was calm, when the weather was calm and it seemed like it was safe to go.

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But now when they're in the midst of this crisis, Paul says, unless these men who are trying to cut down the lifeboats and get in them and save themselves, unless they stay in the ship, you can't be saved.

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So what happens? Verse 32, the soldiers cut away the ropes of the skiff and let it fall off.

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They listened, they listened to Paul. And then the last thing I wanted to point out in verses 33 to 37, which is a real challenge to us as God's people in these days of seemingly one crisis after another, one problem in our country after another.

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And that is that the calm, confident demeanor of the Christian in a time of crisis can be a great encouragement to those around him in that crisis.

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Look at verses 33 through 37, and notice how Paul is a voice of calm and reason and encouragement in the midst of this terrible crisis.

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Paul implored them all to take food, and he said, this is the 14th day you've waited and continued without food.

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You've been going hungry for 14 days and you've eaten nothing. He says, therefore, let me urge you, eat, get something to eat, take nourishment, for this is for your survival.

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And when he said these things, Paul himself very calmly took bread and he gave thanks to God in the presence of them all.

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When he had broken it, he began to eat. And then they were all encouraged and they ate.

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Let's take that as an encouragement to us as believers in Christ. In these days of crisis and chaos and seemingly one negative thing after another coming on the news cycle, let's be people who are calm and who are trusting in the

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Lord and just staying faithful day by day, staying faithful, being examples of trust and confidence in our

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God, whom we claim to know that he is in control of it all. Do we really believe that?

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It'll show by what we do. Our Father in God, we thank you for these challenges from your word today.

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I pray that you would encourage us to be people who trust confidently in you in the crises and may our confidence and our trust in you be an encouragement to those around us.

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This we pray in Jesus' name. Amen. All right. Well, you have a good rest of your