In this sermon, we are going to consider a truth vividly portrayed in the apostle Paul’s life: Storms are powerful places of service for Christ.
I think so many times when we think about the storms of life that we face, we often think from the perspective of perseverance and sanctification. How do we grow? How do we persevere when the going gets tough? One of the most powerful testimonies of the reality of Paul’s faith and confidence in the Lord is the contrast of his unwillingness to save his life at the expense of others when he is in the middle of danger and hardship. In Acts 27, God strategically places Paul as the servant to those who imprison him, who want to abandon him, and who even want to kill him. He speaks words of hope and promise when all others are filled with despair.
It’s one thing to see our trials and hardships as places of perseverance. It’s another thing to have the mind of Christ and to see them as powerful moments to demonstrate the love, the grace, and the mercy of God.
Would you pray this week that God would help us all to see that when our lives are in danger and in trouble, it may just be the place that God wants us to demonstrate the sacrificial love and power of our Lord Jesus Christ? Wouldn’t it be a marvelous gift that we could say instead of “How long, O Lord?”, we could say “Here I am, send me!”
