Nevertheless We Must Run Aground

Elizabeth Elliot Devotional

Title: Nevertheless We Must Run Aground

Have you ever put heart and soul into something,
prayed over it, worked at it with a good heart
because you believed it to be what God wanted,
and finally seen it "run aground"?

The story of Paul's voyage as a prisoner across
the Adriatic Sea tells how an angel stood beside
him and told him not to be afraid (in spite of
winds of hurricane force), for God would spare
his life and the lives of all with him on board
ship. Paul cheered his guards and fellow
passengers with that word, but added,
"Nevertheless, we must run aground on some
island" (Acts 27:26, NIV).

It would seem that the God who promises to spare
all hands might have "done the job right," saved
the ship as well, and spared them the ignominy of
having to make it to land on the flotsam and
jetsam that was left. The fact is He did not, nor
does He always spare us.

Heaven is not here, it's There. If we were given
all we wanted here, our hearts would settle for
this world rather than the next. God is forever
luring us up and away from this one, wooing us to
Himself and His still invisible Kingdom, where we
will certainly find what we so keenly long for.

"Running aground," then, is not the end of the
world. But it helps to make the world a bit less
appealing. It may even be God's answer to "Lead
us not into temptation"--the temptation
complacently to settle for visible things.