pPaul’s voyage to Italy had taken another-last-turn for the worst. When the storm kept raging, the sailors gave up on hope. And when we throw that out, we’re done. If you’ve seen that bit with the big hole in the ground in The Dark Knight Rises, you’ll know what we mean about the power of hope to keep people going. But. (And this is a pretty significant ‘but’.) When the Bible talks about ‘hope’ it’s not talking about hope in luck, or chance, or accident. No. What it’s talking about is focused faith in a strong, saviour God. Here it is, in its own words: ‘Be strong and take heart, all you who hope in the LORD’ (Psalm 31:24 NIV). ‘The eyes of the LORD are on those … whose hope is in his unfailing love, to deliver them from death and keep them alive in famine. We wait in hope for the LORD; he is our help and our shield. In him our hearts rejoice, for we trust in his holy name’ (Psalm 33:18-21 NIV).br /
Are you wrestling with an issue that’s been throwing you back and forth? Have you come to the point where you’ve thrown things out, and now you’re fully in despair? The sailors on Paul’s ship gave up because they didn’t know that God was in control, and that He can inject hope into an absolutely hopeless situation. Paul did. His hope wasn’t just in the idea that he’d weather this storm: it was that His strong God was *in control* of the storm, and so all would turn out well./p
pWhat now?br /
Go back through Acts 27 again and read it, this time looking out for Paul’s reaction to everything./p