"I Believe God"

As the storm threatened and the boat pitched back and forth, when it looked as though everyone was going to die, the apostle Paul encouraged the others on board: "Therefore take heart, men, for I believe God that it will be just as it was told me" (Acts 27:25).

I love those words. They are not the words of a person in denial or out of touch with reality. The fact is that Paul uttered them when they were still in the worst of the storm, with no tangible hope. They had the hope that had been given to Paul by God, the promise they would be delivered, but there was nothing visible to indicate that it really was going to happen.

This was faith, you see. It is faith when we can say, as things are unraveling around us, "God is in control. I know He is going to get me through this, and I know that He is faithful." Paul was confident. He knew that God was the Master of his circumstances and the Captain of his boat. He knew that God was in control.

There was a time when Jesus told the disciples to launch out into the deep for a catch of fish, after they had been fishing for hours and hadn’t caught anything. Peter said, "Master, we have toiled all night and caught nothing; nevertheless at Your word I will let down the net" (Luke 5:5). The word that Peter used for Master is a unique nautical term that means "Captain of this boat." Then the Bible tells us they caught so many fish, their nets were breaking.

So here is the question: Are you willing to let Him be the Captain of your boat? Are you willing to say, like Paul, "I believe God"?