Acts 27:21-26. The ship transporting Paul to Italy is caught in a terrible storm. All supplies have been thrown overboard, and hope of being saved has been abandoned. All on board have gone a long time without food when Paul comes forward and tells them all that they should have listened to him when he warned them not to set sail to try to reach another harbor. But now, he says, they should take heart, for he has had a vision of an angel who told him not to be afraid, he will stand before Caesar, and God has granted survival also of all those who sail with him. Paul tells them all to take heart, for he has "faith in God that it will be exactly as [he] has been told," but, he says, they will have to run aground on some island.

What a role reversal we see here! Paul is being transported as a prisoner. To the soldiers, the captain, and all the crew, Paul is fairly meaningless - he is just one prisoner among many. He is certainly not one of the more important people onboard the ship, to them at least. Yet to God, Paul is the most important person on the ship! Paul is a major player in God's plan, so Paul must be saved and go to Rome. But because Paul has been praying, and because God is kind and merciful, the angel tells Paul "God has granted you all those who sail with you." One seemingly unimportant man, a prisoner no less, has thus saved everyone on board the ship. That is how powerful doing God's will is. That is how much we one person can accomplish through prayer and obedience!

Remember also that Paul's prior message had indicated there would be loss of life if the ship sailed from the harbor in Fair Havens and Paul warned them about this before they set out. But now, God says that he has granted Paul the lives of everyone on board - no one will die. So we see that nothing in God's plan is set until it happens. God's will doesn't change, but He sometimes lets us know things that will happen if we don't act, or pray, or fast (or all three!) to avert them. This allows us the opportunity to do those things, and thus participate in His plan. Paul clearly had been praying since the time they set sail from Fair Havens, and his prayers have now been answered. If he had not received the first message warning of loss of life, he perhaps would not have been praying continuously for the safety of all onboard the ship.

Also note that the only reason Paul relayed his vision was out of love. What is going to happen, or not happen, to the ship is not changed by Paul's telling his shipmates what God told him, but he is relaying the message to bring them peace. That is why he reminded them of his prior warning, not to play "gotcha" (although I'm sure the temptation was strong!), but so that they would remember that he told them what was going to happen and see that he was right. Paul gives all credit for the messages to the God to whom he belongs and who he worships, he is not trying to take any glory for himself, he is, rather, trying to act on the messages he has received in the way that God wants him to. Paul's first message was a warning, but when it was ignored, it became a call to prayer. The second message is an assurance to Paul, but also an opportunity to bring peace to his shipmates. Once they remember that Paul warned them previously, hopefully his shipmates will trust Paul's vision. If they do, they will have the peace of knowing that they will survive this terrible storm.

Paul's message to his shipmates is the same message he gives to all of us in his preaching and his letters. "Do not be afraid, you have been saved." If we trust Paul as the messenger and God as the author of the messages, and act accordingly, we have nothing to fear, as we learned yesterday.