Begin with two minutes of stillness and silence before God.

Today, we will be diving into one of my favorite sections of Acts - Paul's nautical journey to Rome!  At this point in Luke’s account, Paul has been taken prisoner by the Romans and is setting sail for Rome, Italy from a place called Adramyttium.  According to verse 2, this was a Northwest province of Asia.  For context, this voyage's distance of 1,810 miles would be a little further than that of Gulfport, Mississippi to Salt Lake City, Utah. 

Now, Paul and the other prisoners on the boat were under the custody of a Roman Imperial Regiment Captain, Julius.  Verse 3 tells us that Julius was very kind to Paul.  During the journey, their boat followed the coastline and made various stops. Julius would let Paul go out on land and meet with friends!  But Paul would start to notice that they stopped a little too often and that the course they had been taking was proving to be difficult due to sailing against the wind.  Paul observed these signs and thought he should warn the officers of the impending dangers if they continued this journey.  But instead of listening to Paul, the officer in charge listened to the orders of the ship’s owner and captain to continue.

When I read this passage, I remember different seasons of my life, seasons of my life where I was like these officers.  I continue to make one decision after another, decisions that are not necessarily well thought out.  I believe sometimes in life we get caught up in the mundane parts and just keep going without any thought of what storms may be waiting for us on our journey.

As we walk through all the different seasons of our lives, we must remember that the Lord sent His Holy Spirit to guide and remind us of Jesus’ teachings. Sometimes we ignore the godly wisdom He has sent us. Maybe His Word is trying to tell you something.  Maybe He has sent a “Paul” to you, to share His wisdom before a storm.  Maybe it is something as small as you are sailing against the wind, and you need to stop and rest.  The biggest lie we can tell ourselves is “I got this” like the officers did.

Take two minutes to reflect in silence.

 Reflection:

• Has there been a time in your life when you ignored signs of danger and made decisions that didn't end well? 
  
• How can you bring God into your decision-making process? 
  
• The average adult makes over 33,000 decisions a day.  This is an opportunity God has given us, to invite us into a relationship with Him!  I want to challenge you to incorporate prayer into your everyday decision making.
• Prayer: Dear Lord, thank You for Your Holy Spirit and being a guide for my life.  Open my eye to my own pride and when I am not allowing You to lead the way.  Help my heart and mind to remember that I can trust You even when I can't see what lies ahead. In Jesus' name, Amen.