After Paul encouraged the captain to put the boat on the land, Paul encouraged everyone to eat. Paul shared the message an angel gave him in a dream the night before.

Paul saw this moment as an opportunity to display his and Luke’s trust in a God who cares foe them.

Paul doesn’t do anything elaborate. He simply prayed for the food. Yes, Paul prayed for the food. Watch what that simple discipline did for those with Luke and Paul in the crises.

“So I urge you to take some food. For this is for your survival, since none of you will lose a hair from your head.” After he said these things and had taken some bread, he gave thanks to God in the presence of all of them, and after he broke it, he began to eat. They all were encouraged and took food themselves. In all there were 276 of us on the ship. When they had eaten enough, they began to lighten the ship by throwing the grain overboard into the sea.”

Acts‬ ‭27:34-38‬ ‭CSB‬‬

Simply praying for food in the middle of a crisis brought encouragement to all.

When in a crisis , don’t neglect the simple spiritual disciplines, like simply thanking God for the meal in front of you. When you thank God for what you have and recognize that everything you have and everything you are comes from Him, you remind yourself that God is bigger than your crisis and it encourages others too.

“Saul was furious and resented this song. “They credited tens of thousands to David,” he complained, “but they only credited me with thousands. What more can he have but the kingdom?” So Saul watched David jealously from that day forward.”

Great and Godly leaders rejoice when those under them succeed.

“Everyone who falls on that stone will be broken to pieces, but on whomever it falls, it will shatter him.”

One can fall on Jesus and be broken or one can have Jesus fall on you in the end and be crushed.

Either way is painful to our human pride and will but only one way leads to restoration and life.

What will you chose?

“Happy is the nation whose God is the Lord — the people he has chosen to be his own possession!”

Psalms 33:12 CSB

“We wait for the Lord; he is our help and shield. For our hearts rejoice in him because we trust in his holy name. May your faithful love rest on us, Lord, for we put our hope in you.”

Psalms 33:20-22 CSB

This is the reason our nation is not happy. We are our own god. We are our own authority. We will not be anyone’s possession.

The key to joy and happiness is a trusting abandon to God. We have joy when we trust in God and our hope is in Him.

The more we try to control, the more we become angry or anxious.

The more we complain, the more we become bitter and discontent.

“I lavish unfailing love to a thousand generations. I forgive iniquity, rebellion, and sin. But I do not excuse the guilty. I lay the sins of the parents upon their children and grandchildren; the entire family is affected— even children in the third and fourth generations.”

Exodus 34:7 NLT

God’ love is unfailing. It cannot and will not fail. Love never fails. God never fails.

“How joyful is the one whose transgression is forgiven, whose sin is covered! How joyful is a person whom the Lord does not charge with iniquity and in whose spirit is no deceit!”

There is always a reason for joy when you know you’re forgiven.

I used to sing a song that says, “I get joy when I think about what He’s done for me.”

Don’t let your joy come from anything else.

“Into your hand I entrust my spirit; you have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth.”

Jesus used these words right before He died. Jesus was confident in the truth that followed, “you have redeemed me, Lord, God of truth.”

Jesus knew God would redeem Him. God is life and God is truth. Jesus proved we can trust God and trust the scriptures. If Jesus used the scriptures in His most difficult hour, we can trust in scripture to build our faith in God for our most difficult hour.

“Celebrate a festival in my honor three times a year. Observe the Festival of Unleavened Bread. As I commanded you, you are to eat unleavened bread for seven days at the appointed time in the month of Abib, because you came out of Egypt in that month. No one is to appear before me empty-handed. Also observe the Festival of Harvest with the firstfruits of your produce from what you sow in the field, and observe the Festival of Ingathering at the end of the year, when you gather your produce from the field. Three times a year all your males are to appear before the Lord God.”

God wants us to celebrate Him and what He’s done for us.

What’s stopping us from throwing a party for God?

Our Pride. That’s what keeps us from celebrating God. Think about it.

So the people complained to Moses, “Give us water to drink.” “Why are you complaining to me?” Moses replied to them. “Why are you testing the Lord?

To complain is to test God.

God is not to be tested. It was a command that even Jesus held to when He was tempted while fasting in the wilderness. (Matthew 4)

When the Israelites were in the Wilderness of Sin, they complained and Moses saw that their complaints were testing God.

Complaining is the opposite of faith.

• We complain because we don’t trust God is sovereign.
• We complain because we don’t trust God is good.
• We complain because we don’t trust God is righteous or just.

We complain because we think we deserve better and that we would handle the situation better.

The only way we are to test God is to test Him in giving a tithe back to Him.

Malachi tells us that we can put God to the test by giving the first ten percent of everything He’s given to us back to Him. This is an act of gratitude and a response of faith.

To give back is gratitude. To give back the first ten percent is trust. It takes faith to give the first because you don’t see the rest.

Don’t complain.
Don’t test God.
Be grateful.
Be generous.

Gratitude and generosity keep us from complaining.

The Lord will fight for you, and you must be quiet.

Would their complaining offend God?

Would they want to be arm-chair quarterbacks and tell God how to do it?

Would their fear spread and eliminate their faith in God?

Would they get distracted and not pay attention to what God was doing and miss His life-saving direction?