Iridian's choice of objects for our devotion today was a ship that I have in my livingroom. The ship is brown and has lots of sails on the top of it. You might ask, "How can my soul be like a ship"?
A ship sets sail out on the ocean. This great ship may travels weeks and the waves are perfect. The water is great and the fishing is even better. The sails on this great ship have been raised and set in the direction the ship plans on going. All of a sudden the sky starts to darken, the captain orders his men to drop the sails. If the men on the ship refuse to do so, the sails will be ripped apart by the winds. The captain knows exactly what this ship needs to do in order to survive this great storm. The captain once again calls out the orders to lower the sails. The men follow the orders of the captain because they know this captain has seen many storms in his life and he can look at the clouds and know what his crew is facing.
The ship is our lives, Jesus is the captain of our ship, and the Holy Spirit is the sails. The Holy Spirit directs our path and helps us to keep on course. Once the sails have been lowered because of the strong winds, the captain calls out, "lower the anchor". The captain is aware that the storm is getting stronger and stronger by the minute and if the anchor isn't dropped then the waves will toss the ship in directions that will cause our ship to hit up against rocks and reefs that will cause damage to the ships hull. If the anchors are dropped the ship will be able to stay in that one location until the storm passes over.
God is our anchor. He is unmoveable, unchangeable, undefeatable, and no matter how bad the storms get he can keep us stable and keep us from getting destroyed by the trials and tribulations in our lives. If people come along and ask us to set our sails in the wrong direction, we need to remind them that we are anchored in the Lord and that is where we plan to stay. We never need to raise the sails back up on our ship until the storms are over. When the storms pass we can slowly lift our sails which is the Holy Spirit and once again we can ask him to guide us in the right direction.
But let him ask in faith, nothing wavering.
For he that wavereth is like a wave
of the sea driven with the wind and tossed.
James 1:6
No comments:
Post a Comment