Focus: In The Middle Of Nowhere (Pt.2)

Text: Mt.14:24

"But the ship was now IN THE MIDST of the sea, tossed with waves: FOR THE WIND WAS CONTRARY."

While discussing part one of this devotional, my daughter Stephanie reminded me of Sarah's maid, Hagar, who also found herself in the middle of nowhere after she was thrown out of the house by her. Moses records that she "wandered in the wilderness of Beersheba." In the middle of nowhere she ran out of water, and she and her child were dying of thirst. Out of frustration, helplessness and hopelessness she left her child on his own to die. What have you abandoned to die due to frustration and resignation? The boy cried until the angel of God spoke to Hagar, saying, "God hath heard the voice of the lad where he is." God knows where you are, even in the middle of nowhere. When you cry out in pain, God hears. Concerning her son whom she abandoned to die, God says, "I will make him a great nation." And then "God opened her eyes, and she saw a well of water; and she went, and filled the bottle with water, and gave the lad drink." 

God will always meet you in the middle of nowhere. Don't try to do anything stupid! Just hold your peace and trust God! You have a choice to make anywhere you find yourself in this life. Remember that Paul and Silas made a choice to respond to their situation with prayer and a song. They were beaten up and jailed for the sake of the gospel, but they turned their situation around with praise and worship. They turned the dungeon into a place of praise. In the jailhouse they became God's choristers and praisers.

Let me ask you: what are your contrary winds?

Paul points to one contrary wind that stood in the way of our salvation. He says that through the cross God was "blotting out the handwriting of ordinances that was against us, which was CONTRARY to us, and took it out of the way, nailing it to his cross" (Col.2:14). 

God has dealt with the contrary wind - the broken laws - that condemned us to eternal death. Jesus Christ took it out of the way. Now we are free! Now we are redeemed! Now we are in Christ!

Paul mentions another contrary wind. He says, "For the flesh lusteth against the Spirit, and the Spirit against the flesh: and these are CONTRARY the one to the other: so that ye CANNOT do the things that ye would" (Gal.5:17). This is an internal tidal wave of the sin-nature. It is the contrary wind that would not let the nature of Christ to develop in us. It is a raging battle in the soul. Paul experienced it in Romans 7, and at the end of the day, he exclaims with an inner frustration, "O wretched man that I am! Who shall deliver me from the body of this death?" (7:24). The Lord Jesus Christ has provided the needed solution, for Paul also exclaims, "I thank God through Jesus Christ our Lord…"

Yet again, Paul points to another contrary wind that is frustrating and keeping us from making spiritual progress. He warns, "That we henceforth be no more children, tossed to and fro, and carried about with every WIND of doctrine…" (Eph.4:14). The waves of doctrines are tossing us here and there. The contrary winds of false doctrines are driving us crazy. Many who claim to be teachers and preachers of God's Word are peddling and brandishing errors in the name of mystery, and we are carried away by them. We are doctrinally poor and ethically bankrupt. Instead of being poor IN spirit, we have become poor OF spirit.

Now do you know what constitutes a contrary wind? In 1st Kings 19, the author says that "a GREAT and STRONG WIND rent the mountains, and brake in pieces the rocks before the LORD; BUT THE LORD WAS NOT IN THE WIND…"(1Kgs.19:11). It is the absence of God! The absence of God turns a wind into a contrary wind. We survive contrary winds all the time because Christ in us is greater than them. God makes stormy winds to fulfill His word, according to the psalmist (Ps.148:8). Christ quiets them. The disciples wondered, "What manner of man is this, that even the wind and the sea obey him?" (Mk.4:41). All of nature bows down in worship to God, their Creator. Jeremiah declares that He "bringeth forth the wind out of his treasures…" (Jer.51:16). 

God is not in the wind, but He uses it to advance His purpose and reveal His glory to His children.

We cannot let the winds immobilize or make us lazy, or reluctant to take action. A wise man said, "He that observeth THE WIND shall not sow; and he that regardeth THE CLOUDS shall not reap" (Ecl.11:4). Keep striving; keep working. Keep your focus, and draw your strength from the indwelling Spirit of Christ! Summon courage, and say to yourself, "Awake, O north wind; and come, thou south; blow upon my garden, that the spices thereof may flow out…" (S of Sol.4:16). 

There are sweet spices in you that the north and south winds will help bring out of you. You need the winds of life to draw out your sweet scent. The world waits to smell your precious aroma.

Do you know that the winds can help you fly and soar high, even as Zechariah had prophesied that "the wind was in their wings…?" (Zech.5:9). The winds will give you wings to fly and soar. God will always utilize every contrary wind He finds in your life to His own advantage and for your ultimate good.

A word of caution:

Stop being like Ephraim, who "feedeth on wind, and followeth after the east wind: he daily increaseth lies and desolation…" (Hos.12:1). Stop being a wind-chaser. Stop beating the air. Rise above the winds! Look beyond the winds and see the glory ahead of you. God is taking you from the place of a miracle to the place of more miracles. He is advancing you from faith to faith, from grace to grace, from strength to strength, and from glory to glory, and He uses the contrary winds in your life to achieve His ends, which indeed is for your own good.

God will never abandon you in the middle of nowhere. He will not let you be forever trapped in transition. He won't let you be stranded in the middle of the sea or in the middle of nowhere. His eyes follow you everywhere, and you have the sure promise of His ever-abiding presence. Even in the middle of nowhere God is there! Amen!

by Bishop Moses E. Peter