Love that meets US in Our Disobedience

It’s amazing to see God’s Love revealed in His Mercy…

Paul had just been handed over to Julius, along with other prisoners heading for Italy, along the way Paul warned them saying “Men, I can see that our voyage is going to be disastrous and bring great loss to ship and cargo, and to our own lives also.” (V10) but the men ignored him and ended up being caught in the Northeaster storm and took a violent beating.

After going days without the sun or stars they gave up hope of ever being saved.

Paul got up and encouraged them because an Angel of the Lord had appeared to him and had assured him of their safety. After a long while they ended up on the shores of Malta.

What struck me the most in this passage was Paul’s speech in verse 21 “… Paul stood up before them and said: “Men, you should have taken my advice not to sail from Crete; then you would have spared yourselves this damage and loss.”

This is interesting because I think of how many times I get a nudge to do something and I don’t.

For example: this morning I woke up preparing to head out for a short trip with my work buddies and I felt the urge to take my laptop. At the last minute I changed my mind and 20 minutes into the first half of the drive I realized I should have taken it.

I think of our own disobedience and how often the Holy Spirit leads us towards something we know we should but we don’t, only to end up going in circles, like with the Israelites, we risk taking a longer time to get to the goal or our destination.

Paul doesn’t stop there, he continues to say “keep up your courage” and that not a single hair in their heads will be lost. It’s interesting to think about God’s gracious and merciful love and how He gives us an instruction and He knows that there’s a possibility of us disobeying, yet when we do He still gives us room for second chances.

It is certainly not a yardstick to disobey, it will save time and even resources, think about how much different things would be if we simply just obey.

Like Paul, I encourage you to “… keep up your courage… have faith in God …”

Anna Abidan
Volunteer Growth Teams/Wasaidizi
Senegal