The presence of God – peace that calm our hearts of storm
Written by Shemariah Yeung
Since the time when the Apostle Paul made an appeal to the Emperor, it took Paul quite a long journey to arrive in Rome as we see in Acts chapter 27 and onwards, the Apostle Paul was having a very tough journey, he and many others experienced the storm at sea, people on the ship started to panic, they were out in the Mediterranean sea driven by the storm for fourteenth night and people rejected to eat and drink becausethey were losing hope. While the Apostle Paul comforted and encouraged them to eat something.
Acts 27:33 – 38, ‘Just before dawn, Paul begged them all to eat some food, ‘You have been waiting for fourteen days now and all this time you have not eaten a thing. I beg you then, eat some food, you need it in order to survive. Not even a hair of your heads will be lost.’ After saying this, Paul took some bread, gave thanks to God before them all, broke it, and began to eat. They took courage, and every one of them also ate some food. There was a total of 276 of us on board. After everyone had eaten enough, they lightened the ship by throwing all the wheat into the sea.’
The Apostle Paul had a great sense of peace in him. He was also on the ship experiencing such a hard and violent storm like all the others. But the peace of God was clearly seen in him that he was enabled to share this assurance of peace and be the comforter for all the other people in the ship.
How good for us too to have and experience such a peace from God, the presence of God dwelling in our hearts for all occasions – the good and the bad.
As we read on, they encountered a shipwreck and landed in Malta. Even when a snake came out and fastened itself to Paul’s hand, the Apostle Paul was not scared, he simply shook off the snakes on his hand. He simply shook them off of him. The people in Malta was all amazed by it as a result.
Acts 28:3 and 5, ‘Paul gathered up a bundle of sticks and was putting them on the fire when a snake came out on account of the heat and fastened itself to his hand…..But Paul shook the snake off into the fire without being harmed at all.’
The presence of God was so strong in Paul in which the people around him were all amazed…The presence of God, the peace of God was with him even in his tough hours. The same presence of God, the same kind of peace will be among God’s believers too, which include you and me.
Have a blessed assurance of God’s presence and His peace in you this week, brothers and sisters. His presence is ever present….we only need to look closer and get closer to Him….amen.
