Safe Travels

 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

SAFE TRAVELS

Acts 27:22-26

22 But now I urge you to keep up your courage, because not one of you will be lost; only the ship will be destroyed. 23 Last night an angel of the God whose I am and whom I serve stood beside me 24 and said, 'Do not be afraid, Paul. You must stand trial before Caesar; and God has graciously given you the lives of all who sail with you.' 25 So keep up your courage, men, for I have faith in God that it will happen just as he told me. 26 Nevertheless, we must run aground on some island."

NIV

This is just a portion of the whole of chapter 27, which is a travel log of the sailing adventures of Paul and company under the charge of a certain Centurion named Julius, who belonged to the Imperial Regiment.  The trip aboard the ship was from Caesarea to Italy, however, this chapter ends with them being strained on some island due to the most violent of storms. It would seem wasteful to copy the whole of this chapter, with this event being the one important one. There were a total of 276 souls on board and Paul was assured by an angel of God that none would perish and that Paul would make it to Rome. This is a narrative of the gracious act of God toward all aboard that ship. However, it is also a demonstration of the will of God for all who travel through life. We already know that it is God’s desire that none should perish, but all men should come to the saving knowledge of faith in Jesus. Still, we can also see that as we sail through life, we might well encounter some violent storms. There could be difficult times in our lives when we might feel all is lost, and that we are not going to survive the storm. Sometimes it seems the winds are against us, and we are not making any headway in our plans for our life. We might even think sometimes that all our dreams have run aground, and we will never attain our goal. However, God has promised us that we would stand before him, perhaps not so much as on trial, but in fact, it will be a trial of sorts. God will be the Judge and there will be the one who brings the charges against us, the evil one himself. However, for those of us in Christ, those will be false charges, as the Jews leveled against Paul. However, we also have one who stands in our defense, the Righteous One, the Son of God, our Lord and Savior, Jesus. As Paul was promised that everything would happen just as he was told, we have that promise from God that everything we have read in his Holy Word will happen just as we have been told. All mankind will stand before God. Those who are not sailing on the same ship as we are, headed for the place we are promised to get there, the Promised Land, Heaven, the new city of God, will not be saved. But their own choice to run their lives aground upon the rocks and refuse the lifeboat of Jesus will be cast out forever to the most undesired place, a place where they will perish. However, we have been promised to stand before God in Christ and arrive with our lives saved from all peril. Because we are in Christ, we can safely travel through this life.