Storm Strong, Part 4: Paul's Storm at Sea

By Pastor Greg Byman
St Joe Community Church
November 14, 2019

Sometimes, we cause the storm and sometimes, the storm just is. Today, we consider the story of Paul's storm at Sea, where Paul comforted his fellow shipmates that God was in this storm, and they should trust him. Today’s message concludes a four-week series called Storm Strong, where Pastor Greg Byman unpacks principles of how God lovingly shepherds us through the storms of life.

Pastor's notes

Transcription

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​We're finishing up our final message on Storm Strong, and all four of them, after a day or so here, will be online. The firsts 3 are, and we are studying the storms of the Bible. Physical storms. It seems as though that God used storms to strengthen faith, to turn back rebels, to heal the depressed and to demonstrate His power. And there were so many other storms we could have discussed, but we selected four out of the Bible and we looked at the characters that were involved in the middle of those storms. We looked at how did they find, or how did God infuse in them, or how was hope even found in the midst of that chaos, that they were going through. Was there a glimmer of Christ? Where was Christ in the middle of that? Or how do we connect faith in Jesus Christ? Even in the Old Testament, we saw that Jonah was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, and Jesus referred to him as a human being who was in the belly of the whale three days and three nights, and that he, too, would be in the belly of the earth three days and three nights. That Jonah became a symbol or a sign, a foreshadowing, of what God would do through His Son Jesus Christ to demonstrate His power over death and hell.
 
And so, we'll do that today as well in Acts Chapter 27. You can turn there. We're going to talk about Paul's storm at sea. Paul, the Apostle, his name had been Saul when we first read about him in Acts, the 5th book of the New Testament. Paul has become a follower of Christ. One of those incredible stories of conversion. He was on the road to Damascus, and his goal was to kill or at least to put into prison Christians because he believed that Christians were the scourge of the earth, that they had gotten it all wrong, and they were an enemy of the Jews. He, being a right upright Jew, a highly educated man, well respected, had had a pedigree just a tremendous…. I mean, he had letters behind his side his name, I mean his business card looked impressive as a Jewish man, a Jewish leader. And he had authority from the high courts of the Jewish leaders to do what he had to do to squelch this little movement called, well, at that time, it was not called Christianity, but it was the Way, the people that were following the ways of Jesus Christ.
 
And on that road to Damascus, God showed up. Jesus appeared to him and said, "Why are you doing this? What do you think you're doing?”
 
Have you ever had a parent do that to you as a kid? You’re in the middle of something, and   you think you're totally Ok with doing it and suddenly the parent goes, "what do you think you're doing?” And suddenly all your reasons for why you should be doing that evaporate. And you are left going, “I dunno!”
 
He was struck blind and you can read that story. But the but the bottom line of this is that Paul becomes a follower of Jesus Christ. His life was radically transformed, and he turned around from being a person who was bent on murdering Christians to becoming the chief writer of much of the New Testament that we hold in our hands today. God used him in a powerful way. [Paul] became an apostle, a disciple of Jesus Christ. Not one of the 12, but after the fact, after Christ had died and risen again and gone to ascend into heaven. And this Paul is who we are picking the story up with today.
 
Paul has endured all kinds of things and he's stood for Jesus Christ, and he's currently…. He actually appealed to Caesar. He was also a Roman citizen, one of those unusual quirks about him. And he got it by natural birth. He was born, for some reason, and he didn't pay for his citizenship, in other words. He was even just a very revered man in the Roman law, and so actually the Jews wanted to kill him. Isn’t that interesting? He was a Jew that want to kill Christians. He became a Christian, and now he's on the opposite side of it and now those that he had been with were now trying to take his life. He appeals to the authorities. They put him in prison for his own sake, so he's not killed but because he appealed to a higher power he is now being transported to Rome to stand before Caesar, which was the right and privilege of a Roman citizen, to let their trial be known before the High Court.
 
And so, we see him a prisoner, because of his open faith in Christ, being transported. Eventually he will be executed after his trial.
 
And Paul had warned the sailors in this boat. It was getting towards wintertime, and he said, "you ought not go out into the water.” He may have had some nautical skills. He might have had some premonitions. He may have had whisper in his ear from the Lord. We don't know. But we just know that he said, "You ought not to go out.:
 
And they didn't listen to him. He was friends with a centurion, the high soldier that was in charge of the people that were taking him, and the other prisoners. Transporting them, but they still didn't listen to Paul. And they went out into the waters, and thought, "oh that's pretty good. A nice balmy breeze was taking the sail up, and they were moving right along, and suddenly a gush, as would normally occur, on this great sea, came upon them to the point that they were in great danger of their lives. They were throwing things over. They were absolutely, felt helpless. They had a been through some of their sea tackle over, some of their sails, and the things that they were using for even steering, for making the ship go. And this sailboat was in peril, and their lives were in danger.
 
In fact, we pick up, and I want to start reading in chapter 27:20, the story, and then we're going to talk about it this morning. Starting in verse 20.
 
For many days, neither sun nor stars appeared and the severe storm kept raging. Finally, all hope was fading, that we would be saved.
 
Now pause really quickly. “we.” So, who's talking here? Luke, who wrote the book of Luke, was also writing this account of the gospel of the stories, he was bringing it together, and this is basically Luke part 2. But we know it as Acts, the Acts of the Apostles. And some say it's really the acts of the Holy Spirit as the new church, as the New Testament church was born. But Paul is being accompanied by Luke, who is writing this down, and he's writing a firsthand account of what has happened here on this ship.
 
Verse 21
 
Since they had been without food for a long time, Paul then stood up among them and said, "You men should have followed my advice, not to sail from Crete and sustain this damage and loss. Now I urge you to take courage because there will be no loss of any of your lives, but only of the ship. For last night an angel of the God I belong to and serve, stood by me and said, "Don't be afraid, Paul it is necessary for you to appear before Caesar and indeed God has graciously given you all those who are sailing with you.” So, take courage, men, because I believe God that it will be just the way it was told to me. But we have to run aground on some island. —Acts 27:21
 
So, I won't finish this chapter, but they did run aground. The ship was destroyed, but everyone made it to shore alive. You can read the rest of it this afternoon before you take your nap. Before you watch the Colts win or the Bears win or whoever you like to see win. I don't care. Or 49rs. Somebody has got the 49rs on today. I guess they’re having a good year. Anyway, I'm looking for the leather jacket, Bob. Ok I don't want it. You can have it.
 
But it's a good story to read and I encourage you to continue reading it. But I want to pull from what we've read and this story the storm that Paul is in. What are those timeless truths? What are those things that we can find so that in our current storms, we can find hope in our chaos? Because we see that that timeless principles are true in the Bible. The Bible has stories and they have circumstances, but God didn't just accidentally put a story in there just for a good story. I mean, many a times, would use the stories of the Bible as bedtime stories for my kids. You can't get more exciting than some of the stories in the Bible. There are exciting. And for little boys and girls that like a little bit of gore, for that old testaments got some stories, I'm telling you. There are some battles and stuff. I don't know he's four. I don't know if I should say that out loud. What happened. But it's in the Bible. We talk about it. Because it's all there for a reason. But we're pulling out as we ought the timeless principles that well that were true then for that person in the middle of that story that are true for us today just as if we had even been in that circumstances they were true for them, they are true for us and our current circumstances.
 
So many of us have gone through storms. Some of you are in the middle of a storm. Some of you are passing through and have gone beyond a storm in your life. Chaos is not a respecter of persons in other words, I think the first question I'd like for us to answer this morning is, why me? Why should I have to go through this storm?
 
I mean of all the people that would ask this question; you would think Paul would ask that question. And he's already in chains. He's already suffering for his faith in Jesus Christ. I mean, that alone, for some in this room might say, "well that's enough for me. I'm not going to jail for that,” and you go back to your worldly ways and deny Christ. I hope you wouldn't, but some have. Many have in the history of the world. They have decided that it is not worth the cost of following Jesus to pay the price on this world. Paul could have said, “I don’t want to have anything to do with these chains. God, I didn’t sign up for this.”
The question I want to ask back, if we say, "why me? Why am I going through this pain and suffering? Why is that that I have to have cancer? Why is that I have to lose my job? I did everything right and I lost my job! Why did I have to be the one that had to go, that had to be addicted to alcohol? I’ve got friends around me that they drank all their lives and they never get drunk and they just sort of have their [own way.] Why is it me? Why am I the one that gets stricken with the ism, and everybody else is just the “not-ism”? Why is it me that has to have great loss in my life? Why did I have to lose someone that I thought I would never have to say goodbye to?
 
I don't know where you're at today. I know we've all asked that question, why me? Why me? Why me? But the question I also ask is, "Why not you?” Because in this world everyone faces storms of some kind. We all face something bad in our lives. I look at look around you, but you're not the only one that's gone through a storm, and you know, it doesn't really help somebody, in their time of need to say well you know it's not as bad as Joe. Or you're not as bad as Sally over there.
 
I mean, it's not a right time to say that in the middle of a bad circumstance. “Well, you know, you don't have as bad as so-and-so. Get over it is kind of cruel and unusual punishment.
 
But it is the truth you may not have it nearly as bad as so and so, and so and so. And I’ve actually walked through tragedy with people, and I’ve heard them literally say, "this is horrible, but you know, it could be worse. And sometimes I even have to in my imagination go I'm not really sure I can find a worse right now with you but Ok, I'm glad that you can, in your insane moment, find a sane moment to say that. I would say really, it's the Lord that gives us that that presence of mind more so than anything else, when we say, "well, you know, I'm glad it was me instead of so and so. I'm glad that we went through that loss because I think it was devastated so and so, if they had gone through that loss. What an incredibly strong answer, that I don't even know if I would say that, if I went through some of the tragedies that I’ve had to witness, or I’ve had to go to in my life, to face with people in their greatest needs. But it is true. Why not you? Why not go through that storm? Everybody has them. This happens to be yours.
 
Another one that we can say, "why me?” Is that storms do strengthen our faith. They make us stronger. What's that song? What doesn't kill you makes you stronger. Except bears. Bears kills you. But anyway. But seriously, we know that when we go through adversity, we become a better person on the other side of adversity.
 
You know, teams. If we just, it's just the crass entertainment world of football, or basketball, that great adversity begets great teams, and great results, that oftentimes, the story behind the story, I mean, ESPN always does that, the 30, and you watch the 30, and you go, "wow, I never knew that about the backstory of that team, and no wonder they won this.”
 
Well, who wouldn't want them to win the championship? You know, it's no secret, I want to see Ohio State win the championship this year. Some of you go, “Boo-Hiss.” You can pray for me, and I’ll pray for you, but the year that their hopes were crushed when Purdue beat them, my dad went to Purdue, so you know, you’ve got to root for them occasionally, except for when they play Ohio State, and when they won, and it was a major upset, and then you hear the story of the young man who eventually died of cancer, but he was living to see the day when his Purdue Boilermakers would beat Ohio State. Who didn't want Purdue to win at that point. I mean, you felt ashamed to say, “Ohio State pound them in the ground.” Well, a little bit.”
 
But anyway, but seriously, you wanted…. The adversity behind that story. The tragedy, the struggle, we know that makes for something wonderful later. In the moment, in the crucible of it, in the irons, and in the pit of fire, we go, "how in the world.” And yet we know that fire refines metal into fine gold. And you'll never know what your life is worth until you're tested through a storm. They strengthen our faith.
 
Storms let us glorify God. Our lives become an example of God's great power, and I'm going to dip right into the story here. Paul says, "hey take some food.” Now everybody else is like, "we’re going to die!” Even Luke is like, "we gave up all hope that we were going to live. We had no idea if we were going to make it.”
 
And Paul's like, "hey guys, anybody want some food? We need some food. Come on. Eat a little bit. You've been through tragedy with somebody, and you sit there, and first thing I do when I come down to a scene or a situation where someone's going through a great loss, first thing is to ask, “anybody have a bottle of water? Let's get them some water. Let's get you some food, and you're going through, after couple of days, and you and you look to somebody, who's had great loss, and you go have you eaten and first thing he says, "no, I don't want to eat.”
 
Someone's in the hospital and you've been sitting there, wondering how your loved one's going to do in the hospital. The last thing you are thinking about is going down to the cafeteria and getting food because you just want to see if everything's going to turn out. Ok, you're not thinking about eating. And Paul says, "hey, it's Ok, come on guys. Let's get some food.”
 
How could he do that? Because he had strength that they did not have. He had a hope in God. I mean, if he died, he went to heaven. If he lived, he glorified God. He said I’ll let you know whether I'm in the body, whether I'm with you, whether I'm in Heaven. Doesn't. I'm kind of in between where I want to be. He said that in one of his letters.
 
He said, "you know, it be great to be at home with God, but if I have to be here and suffer for you, hey, that's Ok too. How can he have that feeling because he knew God as his Savior and Lord, he knew Jesus personally. He had a faith and a hope that was beyond this world and he could live beyond this world in the middle of the moment, saying, "Guys it's going to be Ok. Come on, get some food.”
 
And you’re thinking, “who in the world is that guy?” Who is that girl that can stand up in the middle of this crazy moment, here in this office building, I mean, we all lost our jobs and you know, you're not whistling, I mean, you know, like going to happy, because you're you know that's kind of weird maybe but unless you didn't like your job anyway, but you're sitting there going through the struggle, but you have a peace to know that God's in control, not you. That God's got this, it's not up to you anyway. You were never in control. And when you trust the one who is, you can glorify Him because people look at you. Jesus is my rock. Jesus is the one that gets me through this struggle, this trial, this illness, this brain cancer, this whatever it is.
 
I know God's going to get me through one way or the other, I'm glorifying him, and it's his power that helps us, to do that.
 
And finally, storms are opportunities for us to serve others. We see here Paul saying, "Come on, get some food, Ok. I can tell you, here are the promises of God in this circumstance. I've never been in a life and death circumstance, and I don't know that if I ever was, that that I'd have an angel of the Lord come and tell me, "it's going to be Ok. Your life is going to be Ok. You still have work to do. And so you're going to live in all those around you will live with you I don't know if I could say that or not but there's a lot of promises I could go to from the Bible, that he will never leave me or forsake me. That he's got me in the palm of his hand. That if I confess Him as my Savior and Lord, I'm saved. And whether I live or die, even if I die, I will live forever.
 
And I can tell that to someone around me, and I can serve them with those promises and say, "I'm trusting in something beyond anything you guys see in this tragic circumstance. Beyond this circumstance, is a saving God who is going to help us through this one where the other. And you can serve somebody in those circumstances. Helping each person around you do the next right thing even as you do the next right thing.
 
We have peace and strength in God that others don't have. We need to give hope in the storm. We need to give hope we need to throw the lifeline to people in the middle of storms that we're in. So many times, we see people in the middle of a storm and they just cower like they just want to go away and, "hey, don't….”
 
Trust me, I’ve been there. Maybe not like you have, I can’t identify with yours, but I can identify with mine. I want to go away. I don't want this to happen anymore. I want to stop being depressed. I want to stop not caring about anything else around me. I want to think about other people and not be so selfish.
 
I'm just selfishly want to go away. I don't want to be, I don't want to hurt anymore, whether it's physically mentally spiritually. But in that moment, we have an opportunity to find the strength that God gave us and give hope in the middle of the storm.
 
Paul gives a word of hope. He says, "Take courage, because there will be no loss of any lives today. He had a word from God.”
 
He believed in God, and he declared his trust in God. He put his trust in God. He had put his faith in the Lord Jesus Christ. And he declared his faith in Jesus Christ. He declared it. He said to the world, "this is true about my God.”
 
We need to put our faith in him, and we need to declare our faith in him. That's how we give hope in the storm. We first, you know…. I've said this before. Why is it that the airline stewardess says that you must put first put the oxygen on your face and then help the person next to you? Because you're no good to that person if you can't breathe.
 
You say, "yeah, but they're about that….”
 
Yeah, but you are too. And if they're not able to help themselves, you need to be able to find the source first. I just want everybody else to have hope and strength. And that's fine. I'm glad that you like other people to get right, but you are no earthly good if you're not spiritually strong. You've got to have a rock-solid faith in Jesus Christ, and once you do, at that point, then you can declare that faith in the midst of a storm and say, "God is going to get us through.”
 
My God is sufficient. He's the one that supplies all of our needs. He's the one that we cry out to. He's the one that moves mountains. He's the one that called The Storm when he was in the middle of it. He's the one that rose from the dead. He can do anything. We can trust him. Oh, don't have a Christian go through a storm and not say a word about their faith in Christ in the middle of that storm. You're no good to anybody around you. You might as well not even have a faith. Well for your own good I'm glad you do.
 
But what's the point in having faith if you're not able to use it in the middle of the crisis, to help someone else find faith in the middle of that crisis? It's served up great opportunity. It is prime moment for you. It's an open door for you to be able to declare the goodness and greatness of Jesus Christ. That's how we give hope in the middle of that storm. That's how a Christian stand above and beyond the circumstances that they're facing.
 
I've found also that when I'm focused on the spiritual situation rather than the physical situation that it takes my mind off the chaos, and I physically settle down. When I embrace a bad circumstance that I'm about to go through with somebody. When it's bad, it doesn’t feel so bad. It’s still bad. In a joking manner, have you ever gone through a trial or a bad situation, you go, "man we're going to have a really good story if we ever get out of this anybody, here, we're all going to laugh when this is over? We're not laughing right now, but we might later.
 
Maybe not in such flippant ways. I don't want to belittle a bad circumstance. But I'm telling you what, God is forging a story in your life and that story includes you making a difference in others so that they can also have a story in Christ. That's what's all about.
 
You know, that AA and all the other recovery groups know this to be true? That as you're recovering you need to find somebody to help them recover. We know that. Why? You buddy up with somebody. Why? Because it helps you move forward in your walk and your recovery and it helps your  mind on solutions rather than the problem we declare our faith in Christ in the middle of the circumstance.
 
And we invite others to trust Christ in the circumstances. I say, "you know what, you need to trust in him too. Come on. Let's do the right thing. Let's do what's right.”
 
I had a boss that he was in the middle. I got in the middle of his storm. Because he decided to do something really stupid. And I was just a teenager, still. And I was working for the county highway department, and he had done something he shouldn't have done. It wasn’t illegal, but it was against company policy, and my complicity in the whole thing is, I drove the company truck. But I didn't, I would be in trouble for that, but he was, anyway, whatever he was doing, he should not have done. Well, you know how you always find people when you never expect them? In the middle of even a county as small as mine, in this sparse of people as mine, and suddenly, I'm driving along, and I'm seeing one of our coworkers down another road, and you see, you know how you see somebody in the mirror, in a crazy, you see a face in the mirror, I saw, I can still see it today, and his brake lights came on. He knew what was going on. He knew I shouldn't be driving the truck and my boss shouldn’t bedriving his new Corvette. Oh, I told you what he did. Well, we get back to the barn. And he says, "we're going to come up with a story.”
 
I said, "yeah, what story? The story that happened?”
 
He says, "oh, no. We gotta, we gotta, we gotta come up with something because I’ll get fired. I said, “Aha. I'm not gonna lie for you.”
 
Now, this guy was kind of scary. I mean scary scary. He did drugs on the side. He had stories that would make the hair raise on the back of your neck. And he just was kind of a bad dude. Nice to me. But bad dude. And I didn’t want him to be a bad dude to me. And I wasn't sure if I told on him what he'd do to me. And in the middle of that storm, "I just said, you know, the truth is always the best way to go. The truth is always better than falsifying, and then getting caught later.
 
I said, "you're bossing.” And you just start, I mean, I had all the reasons why I knew that his boss wouldn't do that to him, and I wasn't sure for sure if that was true, but I was doing everything I could. And in the middle of all that he never had to tell the truth anyway. So, didn't matter. But anyway.
 
But I was prepared for the worst. And I said, "you know.” And he even said, "you know what, you're right. The best thing to do.”
 
And he didn't believe in God for nothing. And in fact, he did everything he could to keep me from living for God. And all kinds of very perilous circumstances while we were on the job. It was crazy. It was a test of my faith, for sure. But this man and I were in the middle of a storm. I didn't create the storm. He created it. It was stupid, and I'm in the middle of it, and I remember praying, "Lord what I do now? Lord what I do now?” And it’s in my mind, "just do the right thing, and get him to do the right thing.”
 
Sometimes, that's the best you can do. Just try to get somebody else to see straight to do the right thing, even as you are doing the right thing. Invite them to trust the biblical principles that you're living by and say See if God might not come through and show you something better than if you tried to get do it your way and get into trouble in a worse way.
 
So, this morning I just want to close with a saying we need to trust Jesus in the storm. Jesus as he was talking to his disciples, as they were about to face the storm of their lives, he would be arrested soon. He would be put into a sham trial. Put that on court t.v. An absolute sham, and an innocent man was put to death and they all scattered. And he said, this is what's going to happen. And little bit later Peter, would say, "well I'm not leaving!” He says, “3 times you’re going to say you don't know me.” You're not going to know me. You know, you're going. You know his chief leader the one who preached I talked about him when I was in the baptismal today. Denied Jesus 3 times. All this is going to happen. On one of you is going to betray me. What? One of the 12? Judas goes out, betrays him. This is all coming down. The disciples are just confused.
 
And he says but you know what. Let's just read it. Let's read it together out loud.
 
Peace I leave with you. My peace I give you. I do not give to you what the world gives. Your hearts must not be troubled or fearful.”
 
Soak that up today. Trust Jesus in your storm, whether it's a storm that you created—heaven forbid— whether it's a storm that was created by somebody around you. Whether it's one that you can't explain. It's just a storm in life that people face. Will you trust Christ in the middle of it?
 
Will you trust him with your life? You never were in control before the storm. You're not in control, now. And you're not going to get control later. Trust the one who is in control. And let the peace that he gives you be the kind of peace that only he can give you.
 
It is said by the officers when we come on scene as chaplains. There is something different that happens when a pastor shows up, and they look at me, and I go, "Don’t look at me. Look at him. Because I am carrying with me a story of hope. And I bring an infused measure of that hope. I pour it under the circumstance. Sometimes it's received and sometimes it's not. But often it brings a calming peace in the middle of the circus. It's surreal. It's profound. I don't really.... Every time it happens, I'm getting goosebumps thinking about circumstances, even in the last few weeks, where I have come on scene in the most horrific circumstances, and I sense and feel the peace of God come over the police officers who are having to deal with the tragedy. Not all of them, but some of them, and come upon the family, as they think about their next steps in the midst of the tragedy.
 
We who are followers of Christ have something special to give. It's not ours. It all came from him. And it's an opportunity for us to show hope in chaos. It's an opportunity for us to trust in Christ. Maybe for the first time you're waking up to this fact. You're in a storm and I want to ask you, what are you going to do in the middle of your storm?
 
I want to suggest to you that you place your whole trust in Jesus Christ. Just admit to him, "I’ve blown it. I'm not where I'm supposed to be. I'm a sinner.” Everybody is. But instead of looking out and saying I'm a sinner look up and say, "God, I know, as the creator of the world, I have offended you, And I admit that. I have not lived the way you intended for my life to be and live. And so, I confess you. I confess that out loud. I believe, Jesus, that you did die for my sins. There's too much evidence around me. There are people around me, that I see their lives. I want what they want.”
 
Just, in your mind right now, just start praying, "God, I want that. However, it takes, whatever it takes, to help me to know the kind of peace that I'm seeing in the lives of people who are following you. I believe in You, Jesus. I believe you died for me. I do believe that you.... I don't get it all, but I know you did something for me that I couldn't do for myself, and I accept that this morning. I believe that.”
 
And then I'm just going to ask you to take the next step, and that is to confess openly, that you're trusting in Jesus. It starts with taking this connection card, and maybe on the back, you just say you know what, on the front, actually, I am accepting Christ as my Savior Day, today. I'm a first-time guest. I’m a member. You know, I am putting my faith in Jesus Christ. I want to know more about getting baptized. I want to know more about what it means to.... And you can, maybe see some things on here. And we love to get back in touch with you and help you to take that step forward in your faith in Jesus Christ.
 
Trust Jesus in your storm. It may be, for such a time as this, that God has put this storm in your life in order to save your life. Have you ever thought about that? That maybe the storm that you think is killing you and is actually meant to save you. And then for those of us who know Christ, will you just take the storm opportunities to display that power that is within you. Start using those spiritual muscles that God has given to you, spiritually, to stand up and be strong in the Lord Jesus Christ.
 
It is said in China that a Christian is not respected, a pastor is not followed in China, in the Christian church, until they've been to prison. In other words, if I was the pastor of you in China, you wouldn't respect me until I'd been to prison to prove that I really did have faith in Jesus Christ.
 
What?
 
They knew that until someone went through a storm, it might not really be real in their lives. Will you stand up and live for Christ? And let God strengthen you like you've never been strengthened before. We know it's true for our physical lives. We know it's true when we when we say if we work an exercise that those muscles are going to get stronger. We know it's true in the physical body we know that if we have a regimen of losing weight over time that we start doing the exercises and things that we need to do that results occur. It's that same thing when it comes to our spiritual lives. You'll be stronger tomorrow if you start exercising your faith today.