I’m sure you have been around long enough by now to know that relationships often get messy!
Even your closest relationships can turn upside down and what seemed to be going along peacefully suddenly turns into a tempest. What do you do when the tensions rise with those you love? How do you navigate through the confusion when you want to follow God and believe He is leading you in one direction and yet those closest to you believe you should follow a different path? Or, how do you stay on course when people remind you of your mistakes or failures?
In 57 AD, the Apostle Paul was traveling to Jerusalem. He desired to be there for the Feast of Pentecost. Yet it was more than desire, he felt compelled by the Holy Spirit that he was to be in the city for the festival. In a sense, he felt driven to be there. Along the way, he stopped in Miletus and called for the elders of the Church in Ephesus to join him for one final visit. Paul stated to these leaders,
“And now I am on my way to Jerusalem, compelled by the Spirit, not knowing what I will encounter there, except that in every town the Holy Spirit warns me that chains and afflictions are waiting for me. But I consider my life of no value to myself; my purpose is to finish my course and the ministry I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of God’s grace. – Acts 20:22–24 (CSB).
You can sense his resolve as he shares how he knows in his heart that trouble awaits him. One can only imagine how many times he considered not going, yet, he was convinced in his spirit that he was in fact to walk this path and face whatever lay ahead with courage and faith. Paul may not have understood why he sensed trouble awaited him, but he trusted God to be with him.
To amplify the emotional struggle, as Paul said his farewells and had one final moment of prayer with the Ephesian elders, they then embraced him, kissed him and cried tears of sorrow (Acts 20: 36-38). I’m sure Paul’s heart was heavy as he waved goodbye for the final time from the ship as he sailed away. We can feel the heaviness as Dr. Luke writes in Acts 21:1, “After we tore ourselves away from them, we set sail. “
The next stop was the city of Tyre. He and his company were there for 7 days and the storm inside of Paul intensified. The disciples in Tyre also sensed that trouble awaited Paul in Jerusalem. They begged Paul not to go to Jerusalem (Acts 21:4).
Next stop was to the house of Philip the Evangelist in the city of Caesarea. Things got really interesting there as a prophet from Jerusalem named Agabus arrived. One day, Agabus took Paul’s belt and tied his own feet and hands. He said, “This is what the Holy Spirit says: ‘In this way the Jews in Jerusalem will bind the man who owns this belt and deliver him over to the Gentiles’” (Acts 21: 10-14).
After Agabus prophesied, everyone in attendance began begging Paul not to go to Jerusalem. The storm must have raged in Paul’s soul. Over and over Paul heard the same message from the people he loved; “Please don’t go!” What was he to do?
I’m grateful that God had Dr. Luke record this journey of Paul. For in similar fashion, if you desire to honor God and follow Him then there will be times that those closest to you may not fully understand the direction you feel convicted to follow. There is a great lesson to be learned from how Paul managed this tempest of emotions and stayed faithful to the path God laid before him.
To navigate through the tempest of emotions you must…
Prioritize God’s Will over the Will of Others.
Honestly, that isn’t always easy to do. It wasn’t easy for Paul either. Notice what Paul said to his friends after Agubas prophesied,
“What are you doing, weeping and breaking my heart? For I am ready not only to be bound but also to die in Jerusalem for the name of the Lord Jesus.” Since he would not be persuaded, we said no more except, “The Lord’s will be done.” (Acts 21: 13-14).
In the moments when your direction is clouded by the swirling winds of emotions you must remember to whom you belong. Your life is in God’s hand and He knows what He is doing. The struggle is to remember that in the chaos of multiple voices telling you what they believe you should do. God is for you, not against you and even in the moments when His plan doesn’t make sense or isn’t the path you hoped for, in the end you can rest assured that God is with you and the best place to be is in the shadow of His presence.
Pursuing Truth with Chris Vaught 