Stay The Course, Don’t Shipwreck Your Faith

By: Chris Disney

Stay the course:

In this life, there are so many distractions and voices. It can make us drift off course from where God wants us to be if we buy into those distractions and listen to the voices that aren’t from God. We can run our ship aground. As I was praying for God to give me an idea for my first article to write for this website. God said, “Just stay the course.” Now maybe that’s just for me. However, I hope this finds someone who will read the rest of this and be encouraged today.

You may be saying Stay the course? What does this even mean? It means that if you have been given a map by the Lord to follow. It’s the “Trust Map” Trust that he’s gonna direct your boat whichever way it needs to go. Because Proverbs 3:5-6 says, “Trust in the Lord with all your heart; Do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.” You see, we don’t even control our own boat. God does. However, our boat needs oil to keep moving, though. The oil of faith, when the oil of faith is full, our boat stays on course. When it runs on empty or leaks out, we can run our boat aground, or we just float adrift, not going anywhere in life.

Shipwrecked:

So what happens when we try to seize control of the boat and decide to take things into our own hands? When we get in the flesh, which means we take everything out of God’s hands, and we say, ” God, you’re just not doing this fast enough. I want what I want now!” Guess what? God is such a gentleman, he will move out of the way and say, “Go ahead, take control!” Things will look prosperous for a time, too. The boat may grow, and you’ll have a new partner on board with you. Things will seem absolutely fantastic. Oh, how the devil loves to give you what you want. Yet there’s always a price to pay. You’ll notice once the shine and lust run out. That woman is just like Delila was to Samson in the Old Testament; she will begin to drain the oil of faith out of your boat. You’ll be so blinded with lust that you don’t notice that your ship is on a collision course with rocky waters.

The worst part is when you collide that boat into those rocks, your ship will be no better than the “Exxon Valdez.” It was one of the worst oil spill disasters in history, causing catastrophic environmental damage for many years after it ran aground on the Bligh Reef in 1989. This will be your same outcome. If you’re a man or woman of God and you’ve blinded yourself to the lust of this life, your boat will run aground your oil will spill out all over. It won’t just affect you. It will affect your church, your friends, your family, and even your community.

The Apostle Paul warned us not to do this, for men in his day had done the same thing. Paul says in 1st Timothy 1:19, “Cling to your Faith in Christ, and keep your consciences clear. For some have deliberately violated their consciences; as a result, their faith has been shipwrecked.” When are consciences become cloudy, we become blinded, and when we become blinded, we take control of our ship, running it aground into even worse sin than before we started this journey.

Faith to Weather the Storm:

Sometimes the storms of life are so overwhelming and cause us to panic. We want to hijack the ship from God. We need to remember He’s in control and He’s in the boat, he can take you through this storm or speak to this storm “Peace Be Still.” When we surrender this control, it builds our faith, which, as I said earlier. Our faith powers the boat, and our Worship is the engine that moves it faster. So whatever you are going through right now. Just know he’s with you, worship him in this storm, let God drive this ship, and just trust the one who started this journey for you will bring it to an expected end where you land on the shores of the Promised Land He’s calling you to.

Prayer and Thankfulness

Lord, I pray a blessing over everyone who reads this. Make this word fall on good ground today. May it be a source of encouragement for those who are in dark seas right now. I pray that if they were about to shipwreck their faith that they would renew their faith in you today. In the name of Jesus Christ, I pray, and I thank you for this opportunity as well to give you glory.