August 04, 2022
Daily Devotion:
"God's Boat Sails Best... "
Isaiah 33:23-24
New International Version
23 Your rigging hangs loose: The mast is not held secure; the sail is not spread. Then an abundance of spoils will be divided and even the lame will carry off plunder.
Have you seen pictures of sailboats leaning so far over they seem to be on the brink of overturning? Only those who have experienced the exhilaration of speeding over the waves as the wind cuts through tightly trimmed sails can appreciate the seemingly precarious way a boat sails at its optimum potential. Of course even the finest yachts will be useless if not skillfully sailed. It's easy to see how Isaiah would describe God's way ward people as a floundering boat. In their relationship to God, they were fearful at the sight of the first threatening wave, lackadaisical when the winds of fortune were calm, and ceaselessly careless when dangers lurked just beneath the surface. They seemed always to be lost at sea-on course, then off; off course, then on. Given their lack of seaworthiness, it is amazing they stayed afloat at all!
Even now, those who are fearful of committing themselves to God will often abandon crucial spiritual “rigging" at the first sign of the boat tipping. It takes trust and faith to believe that God's boat actually sails best when this world's values are almost upside down! The lazy mariner will not bother to unfurl the written Word. But without biblical knowledge to catch the fair breezes of the Holy Spirit, this ship is going nowhere! Most critical of all-careless sailors won't even notice dangerous doctrinal defects in the mast of faith on which all else hangs. This powerful nautical imagery intended as a rebuke to Israel is a call for us to reexamine our own state of spiritual seaworthiness.
The question for sailors on life's sea is: Am I leaning in trust with my sails trimmed tightly into the wind or drifting aimlessly for lack of faith?
