Faith > Fear
by Gary Johnson
As I write this, I’m enjoying a few days over July 4th at my brother’s lake house in Michigan. And is the lake ever busy! There are many families with cottages around the lake, and young people – if they are not in the water swimming and diving from rafts – they are on jet-skis, water-skis, and paddle boards.
Summer vacation for them (and for us years ago) was a celebrated time in that another school year had come and gone. Students passed their tests and advanced to a new grade. It is a rhythm that we know all too well. Yet, test-taking is not only a part of life educationally; we take tests spiritually. Peter said that trials (i.e., tests) come to prove that our faith is genuine (1 Peter 1:7). To keep growing in our walk with Jesus, our faith will be tested.
In Acts 27:9-44, Paul went through such a test. This passage describes Paul on a prison transport ship, in route to Rome. He was standing trial in Caesarea when he appealed to appear before Caesar. Once they set sail, it wasn’t long before they were in the midst of a violent storm. When we slowly and carefully read the passage, we discover that the storm had two overwhelming features. It was 1) sudden and 2) serious. The storm came upon them without warning, and it was life-threatening. The Greek word used in the text is the word from which we derive our word typhoon. This was no simple storm that would pass in a few hours. To the contrary, it was gargantuan, and it struck fear within the men on that vessel.
So serious was the storm, that the crew took heroic action to try and save their lives. They threw the ship’s cargo overboard, as well as its tackle (i.e., rigging). They even passed ropes underneath the ship attempting to hold it together. For fourteen days and nights, the 276 men on the ship feared for their lives. We read that the sun, moon, and stars had not shone for two weeks. They gave up all hope of being saved.
Imagine Paul trying to stand on deck with the ship being violently tossed by the waves. Imagine hearing him shouting to 275 other men, as he tried to be heard above the sound of the howling wind. The text reads that these men had not eaten for two weeks! Imagine how emaciated they would have been from seasickness and exhaustion from a lack of sleep and fighting for their very lives. From Paul’s message to the men, we discover two types of faith: an anchored faith, and 2) an active faith.
An angel (i.e., messenger) of the Lord told Paul that not a single man would lose his life, but only the ship would be lost in the storm – and Paul believed God. Paul shouted out, “I have faith in God that it will happen just as he (God) told me” (v. 25). Paul’s faith was anchored in God – not in the captain of the ship, the men sailing the ship or even in the ropes under the ship. Also, Paul did not keep this hope-filled news to himself. He shared it with fellow prisoners and even with his captors! Paul told the men twice (vv. 22, 25) to keep up their courage. He told them they were going to live and not die because of God’s mercy and power to do so. That is an active faith – speaking hope into the lives of people when their world is seemingly coming apart.
Paul passed the test. Clearly, his would be a STRONGER FAITH on the other side of the storm. Can we say the same? All of us will suddenly find ourselves in serious storms. It may be a cancer diagnosis, a job loss, the death of a loved one, the dissolution of a marriage, etc. Life-threatening storms – for us – serve as a test to see if our faith in God is genuine or not. Will we turn to God and hold on to Him or not? Do we have an anchored faith in God, and is it an active faith that we share with others?
Captain Henry Dempsey, a pilot for what was then Eastern Express Airlines, was flying a commuter plane from Lewiston, Maine to Boston in September 1987. He and his co-pilot had just taken off when they heard something from the passenger area of the 15-seat Beechcraft 190 turboprop. Dempsey loosened his seatbelt and walked back when they suddenly hit some turbulence. Dempsey fell against the door and the door flew open! An alarm went off in the cockpit and the co-pilot radioed to Portland, Maine, asking for emergency permission to land, and gave the co-ordinates for where Dempsey would have fallen 4,000 feet to the north Atlantic Ocean below. When the co-pilot brought the plane in for a landing at nearly 200 miles an hour, little did he know that Dempsey was holding tightly to the handrails of the door, hanging upside down with his head less than 12 inches from the concrete runway – at nearly 200 mph! Dempsey had a decision to make – let go and die or hold on and live. And we have a decision to make. Will we hold on to God with an anchored faith…or not?
The good news is that storms come and go. All storms pass, but the question remains: will we pass the storm’s test? “Without faith, it is impossible to please God” (Heb 11:6). Like the disciples, let’s ask Jesus, “Lord, increase our faith!” (Luke 17:5).
Don’t let the storms take your faith. Make your faith take the storm.
Pass the test.
