Acts 27:20 “And when neither sun nor stars in many days appeared, and no small tempest lay on us, all hope that we should be saved was then taken away.”
When “all hope” is “taken away”, we are left with an empty and dark dread, in which there is no joy, no peace, and no expectation of better circumstances. In such times we usually either do nothing or we do the wrong things. We don’t do anything because we are hopeless; thus, we conclude that there is no reason to do anything but just sit in our misery and wait until the expected catastrophic end. If we do something, whatever we do is usually born out of fear and anxiety and desperation, not sound judgment, which makes our circumstances even worse. In this case, the Sailers and those with Paul could see no possibility that they could be “saved” from the ravaging storm that was tearing their little ship apart. But Paul delivered them a message from the Lord that “Except these abide in the ship, ye cannot be saved.” (Acts 27:31). The Centurion believed him and prevented them from fleeing the ship. Their situation looked hopeless; but, as always, the Lord was right! Not one soul was lost to the stormy sea, for “it came to pass, that they escaped all safe to land” (Acts 27:44). Many lessons are to be learned from this account, but the preeminent message to us is to obey the Lord, no matter how dreadful our circumstances may be. Our Lord made it very simple to understand; He put it this way, “If ye love me, keep my commandments.” (John 14:15)!