Welcome to another day the Lord has made that we should rejoice and be glad in. (Psalms 118:24)

Storms lesson number two: Storms of life may wreck, but they won’t destroy us.

Today’s scripture, Acts 27:22‭-‬26‭, ‬41‭-‬44 (NLT) shares…
But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’ So take courage! For I believe God. It will be just as he said. But we will be shipwrecked on an island.”…But they hit a shoal and ran the ship aground too soon. The bow of the ship stuck fast, while the stern was repeatedly smashed by the force of the waves and began to break apart. The soldiers wanted to kill the prisoners to make sure they didn’t swim ashore and escape. But the commanding officer wanted to spare Paul, so he didn’t let them carry out their plan. Then he ordered all who could swim to jump overboard first and make for land. The others held on to planks or debris from the broken ship. So everyone escaped safely to shore.

Consider…
In boxing there’s a difference between being knocked down and knocked out. Although I imagine they both initially feel the same, we can get up from a knock down, whereas a knock out declares the fight is over.

In John 16:33 (NLT), Jesus said…
“I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.”

In essence Jesus was telling His followers, you will be knocked down, but not knocked out, because I’ve already won the fight for you.

This is important, because if we’re honest, none of us relish the idea of suffering. Yet, suffering is what scripture promises us.

• 2 Timothy 3:12 (NLT) says…Yes, and everyone who wants to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will suffer persecution.
• And, 2 Corinthians 1:5 (NLT) promises…For the more we suffer for Christ, the more God will shower us with his comfort through Christ.
• As well as, 1 Peter 3:14 (NLT) encourages…But even if you suffer for doing what is right, God will reward you for it. So don’t worry or be afraid of their threats.
• Jesus himself said, “Great blessings belong to those who suffer persecution for doing what is right. God’s kingdom belongs to them. – Matthew 5:10 ERV

Still the suffering math for doing right ain’t mathing. It makes no sense, why we’re punished for doing good. Worst of all, why does it seem most of that suffering often comes from those closest to us, including the church? Remember, it was the religious leaders, not the Romans, that wanted to crucify Jesus.

In John 16:1‭-‬4 (ERV), Jesus told his disciples…
“I have told you all this so that you won’t lose your faith when you face troubles. People will tell you to leave their synagogues and never come back. In fact, the time will come when they will think that killing you would be doing service for God. They will do this because they have not known the Father, and they have not known me. I have told you all this now to prepare you. So when the time comes for these things to happen, you will remember that I warned you. “I did not tell you these things at the beginning, because I was with you then.

The purpose of today’s encouragement isn’t to explain suffering, but to help us see God warned us in advance to strengthen our faith to go through it.

If we pay close attention to God’s wording, we will see His blessed assurance of peace through the suffering. Look again at what Paul said about the foretold shipwreck…
But take courage! None of you will lose your lives, even though the ship will go down. For last night an angel of the God to whom I belong and whom I serve stood beside me, and he said, ‘Don’t be afraid, Paul, for you will surely stand trial before Caesar! What’s more, God in his goodness has granted safety to everyone sailing with you.’

Where’s the peace you ask? Paul said, I have an ordained court case with Caesar, therefore although the shipwreck may knock me down, it won’t knock me out. What’s more, because you’re my traveling companions, you will live to fight another day too.

Peace comes from knowing, God is going to get us to where He is sending us. We just have to walk by faith, not by sight.

That means, when we see our lives breaking apart from the storms of life, we can be assured it’s only temporary pain, that’s producing eternal gain. The Apostle Paul, who is an expert in suffering, said it this way…
We have small troubles for a while now, but these troubles are helping us gain an eternal glory. That eternal glory is much greater than our troubles. – 2 Corinthians 4:17 ERV

Our church is going through a sermon series titled, ‘Hope on a tight rope’. It is a walk through Romans 8. Last Sunday, one of my dearest preacher friends walked through verses 18-25, and subtitled the section, ‘Future glory, outweighs present suffering’. It was a great and timely message.

Admittedly, I like to rhyme, so I would have titled his message, ‘future glory changes the narrative of the suffering story’

I would have also reached back one verse for additional context…
And since we are his children, we are his heirs. In fact, together with Christ we are heirs of God’s glory. But if we are to share his glory, we must also share his suffering. Yet what we suffer now is nothing compared to the glory he will reveal to us later. – Romans 8:17‭-‬18 NLT

Don’t mistake my tweaks as criticism, because the Holy Spirit used my brother to further transform my thinking about suffering.

It’s his transformational perspective that inspires today’s encouragement, which is change the narrative of your suffering story, to gaining eternal glory.

That perspective reminds me of my woodshop class in high school. I remember being taught to use various coarses of sand paper to smooth out the rough edges of the wood. The rougher the wood is, the more coarse the sand paper needs to be in order to achieve the smoothing process. In the same way, God is telling us that He allows suffering to smooth out the rough self-sufficient edges of our faith. It’s almost like the greater the storm, the stronger the faith is being revealed in us.

So, I encourage you to see suffering as God’s faith buffing tool to strengthen our dependence on, and confidence in Him.

Thus, the more we focus on the eternal glory gain, the less we’ll linger on our momentary pain.

The Holy Spirit is impressing upon me to view…
Temporary suffering,
As God’s Divine buffing,
Transforming our rough faith story
Into His promise of eternal glory

Therefore, see your suffering story as a prequel to God’s eternal glory.

Today’s song is…
The Corinthian Song

Blessings 4HG (1 Corinthians 10:31)