Pull Your Ship In – Part 1

If you see your life as being in God’s hands, and submit to him, that’s a great start. Yet if you just wait on him to do wonderful things in your life, you may find more disappointment than you expected. It may seem biblical and spiritual to simply wait on God to do the things he promises in his word. That’s faith, right? 

But look at the biblical record: God made Abraham leave his home and truck across the known world of that time. He made Noah build an ark, which some scholars calculate would have taken fifty years to build. He made Moses lead a nation of disgruntled people around the wilderness for forty years. When Joshua led Israel into the Promised Land, they had to fight for everything that was “promised.” All of the judges rose up precisely because of excruciatingly difficult circumstances. The prophets stood their ground in faithfulness to God despite continual opposition. Jesus spent thirty years living as a human, then three years in a difficult itinerant ministry, then got crucified—all according to the Father’s plan. The apostle Paul went headlong into relentless hardship and torment to fulfill God’s call on his life.

To use a common metaphor, all of us are tempted to wait, as it were, for “our ship to come in.” I did that for far too long. But our ship is not coming in. We have to pull in. Say it, if you will: “My ship is not coming in. I have to pull it in.”

Does God supernaturally bless people in the Bible, and us too, beyond anything we do or deserve? Yes, he does. But look where those blessings fall. They rarely fall on people who simply wait for their ship to come in. They almost always fall on people who, through God’s leading, participate with God by pulling their ship in.

Think about the things you hope for in life.

Think about the things for which you’re waiting on God.

What ship might you need to pull in?

Art: Gerd Altmann | Pixaby