Alive Youth Church Weekly,
Most of us know the story of Jesus calming the storm in the Gospels. It gets preached often because it’s comforting to us, it displays our powerful God, and is easily understood and applied to our lives. Jesus speaks, the wind stops, the waves settle, and peace comes instantly. Who wouldn't love that?
But there’s another storm story in scripture that doesn’t get talked about as much.
Sometimes we expect God to prove His faithfulness by removing pressure. But throughout Scripture, God often proves His faithfulness by sustaining people in the midst of pressure.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego still went into the fire.
Daniel still spent the night with lions.
Paul still drifted through the storm.
The miracle isn't always escape. Sometimes the miracle is endurance.
We love verses about God opening doors and Him providing in amazing ways. But we rarely talk about how many men and women meet God most deeply in confinement, wilderness, prisons, caves, and storms, and the impact that follows.
A calm and comfortable life is not always evidence of God’s favor.
And a difficult season is not evidence of His absence.
Trust leads to surrender, and surrender leads to deeper trust.
That might sound like a nice phrase someone made up just because it flows well or sounds good when you charismatically speak it from a stage, but it’s actually so important, and i'll tell you why:
You can’t truly surrender something to someone you don’t trust. If you believe God is distant, careless, or unreliable, you’ll keep gripping tightly to control. But when you begin to trust His character, His goodness, His wisdom, His faithfulness, you slowly open your hands and loosen your control.
Trust leads to surrender.
When you surrender things to God, you start seeing that He handles them better than you ever could. He gives peace where anxiety used to live. He brings direction where there was confusion. He sustains you in ways you couldn’t sustain yourself.
And every time He proves faithful, your trust in Him grows deeper.
Surrender leads to deeper trust.
It becomes a cycle, a really hard, super fulfilling, confusing, but really good for you cycle.
Trust produces surrender, and surrender reveals the faithfulness of God, which produces even greater trust and more surrender. And around and around it goes. He will never let you down.
Most of us know the story of Jesus calming the storm in the Gospels. It gets preached often because it’s comforting to us, it displays our powerful God, and is easily understood and applied to our lives. Jesus speaks, the wind stops, the waves settle, and peace comes instantly. Who wouldn't love that?
But there’s another storm story in scripture that doesn’t get talked about as much.
I read the book of Acts often. One of my all-time favorite books in the Bible. When I don't know what to read, I usually find myself in the book of Acts. And I found myself reading Acts 27 today.
In Acts 27, Paul is trapped in a violent storm at sea for fourteen days. The ship is breaking apart from the waves and wind. The crew begins throwing cargo overboard. The sun disappears behind thick clouds. Paul even tells those on board that he fears this journey will cost them their lives.
This is the Apostle Paul on board. The writer of the majority of the New Testament. Evangelist and church planter. God had big plans for Paul. And he was only at the beginning.
And yet... He never calms the storm.
The storm still rages.
The ship still breaks apart.
The fear is still real.
In Acts 27, Paul is trapped in a violent storm at sea for fourteen days. The ship is breaking apart from the waves and wind. The crew begins throwing cargo overboard. The sun disappears behind thick clouds. Paul even tells those on board that he fears this journey will cost them their lives.
This is the Apostle Paul on board. The writer of the majority of the New Testament. Evangelist and church planter. God had big plans for Paul. And he was only at the beginning.
And yet... He never calms the storm.
The storm still rages.
The ship still breaks apart.
The fear is still real.
Sometimes we expect God to prove His faithfulness by removing pressure. But throughout Scripture, God often proves His faithfulness by sustaining people in the midst of pressure.
Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego still went into the fire.
Daniel still spent the night with lions.
Paul still drifted through the storm.
The miracle isn't always escape. Sometimes the miracle is endurance.
We love verses about God opening doors and Him providing in amazing ways. But we rarely talk about how many men and women meet God most deeply in confinement, wilderness, prisons, caves, and storms, and the impact that follows.
A calm and comfortable life is not always evidence of God’s favor.
And a difficult season is not evidence of His absence.
Look how God protected each of those people in the stories listed above.
- Shadrach, Meshach, and Abednego walked out of that fire without a burn on them and impacted a kingdom because of it.
- Daniel walked out of that lion's den unharmed and changed a king's heart.
- Paul, in Acts 27, after a shipwreck and near-death experiences, reaches his destination still on mission for God.
Sometimes the storm is not there to destroy your faith, but to reveal what your faith is actually resting on.
When Paul's ship breaks, the people survive by holding onto broken pieces of wood and floating to shore. I like this image. And maybe I'm trying to draw too many conclusions here, but here's what I got from that. God didn’t save them through comfort or control. Floating on broken ship parts is not my ideal way of spending my time. Instead, God required surrender and trust.
Some people are waiting for God to stop the storm before they trust Him.
But Scripture shows us that real faith often learns to trust Him while the wind is still pushing against us.
Sometimes the storm is not there to destroy your faith, but to reveal what your faith is actually resting on.
When Paul's ship breaks, the people survive by holding onto broken pieces of wood and floating to shore. I like this image. And maybe I'm trying to draw too many conclusions here, but here's what I got from that. God didn’t save them through comfort or control. Floating on broken ship parts is not my ideal way of spending my time. Instead, God required surrender and trust.
Some people are waiting for God to stop the storm before they trust Him.
But Scripture shows us that real faith often learns to trust Him while the wind is still pushing against us.
Trust leads to surrender, and surrender leads to deeper trust.
That might sound like a nice phrase someone made up just because it flows well or sounds good when you charismatically speak it from a stage, but it’s actually so important, and i'll tell you why:
You can’t truly surrender something to someone you don’t trust. If you believe God is distant, careless, or unreliable, you’ll keep gripping tightly to control. But when you begin to trust His character, His goodness, His wisdom, His faithfulness, you slowly open your hands and loosen your control.
Trust leads to surrender.
When you surrender things to God, you start seeing that He handles them better than you ever could. He gives peace where anxiety used to live. He brings direction where there was confusion. He sustains you in ways you couldn’t sustain yourself.
And every time He proves faithful, your trust in Him grows deeper.
Surrender leads to deeper trust.
It becomes a cycle, a really hard, super fulfilling, confusing, but really good for you cycle.
Trust produces surrender, and surrender reveals the faithfulness of God, which produces even greater trust and more surrender. And around and around it goes. He will never let you down.
Ok, back to Paul's storm in Acts 27.
Here's the takeaway:
Peace doesn't come from the absence of storms.
Peace comes from the addition of God's presence.
Surrender to His promise for your life, and trust in who your Savior is.
See you all Sunday! Don't forget! 6:30pm!
And while your at it:
- Invite a friend to Camp Preview Night this Sunday, 6:30pm!
- Oh yeah, and... REGISTER FOR CAMP!
Bye for now.
-Isaac Fehlen
Youth Pastor
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