Good morning, I pray that you are readying yourself to enjoy a wonderful day and the beginning of a new week remarkable for joy and blessings. But have you ever said anything like this: “It all went from bad to worse.” “Out of the frying pan and into the fire.” “Just when I thought things couldn’t get any worse, they did.”?
I think we have all shared some words like those from time to time, but consider the experiences Paul had on his journey to Rome. Paul was officially a prisoner when their ship was met by a terrible storm. The seasoned sailors abandoned all hope because the storm raged on and on. Eventually they were shipwrecked and the soldiers on board determined to kill all the prisoners lest they escape. Their Centurion stopped them, and they all reached the shore safely. Do you think that those phrases mentioned above, or something like them, would have crossed the minds of those who endured the storm only to be shipwrecked, and then upon surviving the shipwreck to see soldiers ready to kill them? But the story wasn’t quite over for Paul who needed to endure yet another threat: Paul gathered a pile of brushwood and, as he put it on the fire, a viper, driven out by the heat, fastened itself on his hand. Acts 28:3 The natives who saw this happen were certainly thinking along those lines of “from bad to worse”. When the islanders saw the snake hanging from his hand, they said to each other, “This man must be a murderer; for though he escaped from the sea, the goddess Justice has not allowed him to live.” Acts 28:4
What about Paul? Did he begin to scream about the injustice of it all; to endure the storm only to be shipwrecked; to be shipwrecked and then be threatened with death by the soldiers guarding him; then to make it to land only to be bitten and probably killed by a viper?
No, none of those thoughts claimed Paul. But Paul shook the snake off into the fire and suffered no ill effects. Acts 28:5
The natives watched in wonder, expecting him to swell and to die a horrible death. When he didn’t, they decided he must be a god. That was, of course, quite incorrect. But Paul was with God and God was with him. Amazingly, God can bring about a blessing from the strangest, and often the most difficult of circumstances.
I am not suggesting that we become snake handlers to prove our faith. What I am suggesting is that we all give God every chance to bless us. Don’t give in to fear, or to disappointment, or to depression over circumstances that seem to be going the wrong direction. Give it all to God with an expectation of blessing. It may take patience and understanding, but God will not abandon those He loves.
Allow God to take you from bad to blessing!
Vern