Day 60: God In The Shipwreck Of Our Lives (Acts 27:39–28:14a)

Do you ever have this crazy idea that you will pray for what you want, and then get it? I am not saying this does not happen. It happens all the time. But I am wondering if this is too much the focus of my relationship with God.

What I am trying to say is- Do I wake up in the morning, think about what I want, then pray for it? Without ever asking God what He wants?

I am probably starting a controversy here. I don’t mean to. Let me say again, God wants us to bring our petitions to him in prayer. I am simply wondering aloud what Paul’s prayers were as the morning sun broke over the horizon and they saw land (verse 39.)

I imagine he was praying for a safe landing ashore. Which he got, but only after the ship ran aground and began breaking up and he avoided being killed. Followed by him jumping overboard and swimming ashore avoiding death again, then landing ashore and getting bitten by a viper, to yet again avoid death.

If he prayed, “Lord deliver me ashore safely so I might get to Rome”, I doubt he would have sketched out such a circuitous route via this shipwreck!

Yet in the middle of it all, God is at work. I think God does some of his best work amid the shipwrecks of our lives. Perhaps at each turn, as each threat came upon Paul, he quietly prayed, “Lord show me how”. I don’t know he did, but I wonder.

I wonder if that was his prayer because in the shipwrecks of my life, as I can barely navigate the next step, I find myself often turning to God in such a manner. And when I do, God leads me to all sorts of places.

How about you? Reflect on your shipwrecks (it may not be pleasant). Can you recall God’s leading? Are you in the middle of one right now? How can you pray for God’s leading?