Daily Devotion

By this time, they had lost all control of the ship. The ship was drifting, broadside on, across the Adriatic; and they could not tell where they were. In the darkness, they heard the crash of breakers on some distant shore; they cast out sea anchors from the stern to slacken the drifting speed of the ship to prevent being cast on the rocks that they could not see. It was then that Paul took the action of the commander. The sailors planned to sail away; that would leave 276 people; Paul frustrated their plan. Next comes the most human and suggestive plan. Paul insisted that they should eat. He was a visionary man of God; he had not the slightest doubt that God would do His part but he also knew they must do theirs. He knew that hungry men are not efficient men; so, he gathered the ship’s company around him and made them eat.

 

As we read the narrative, into the tempest there seems to come a strange calm. The man of God has somehow made others sure that God is in charge of things. The most useful people in the world are those who, being themselves calm, bring to others the secret of confidence. Paul was like that; every follower of Jesus ought to be steadfast when others are in turmoil.