“God save me!” I suppose we’ve all prayed that way during times of desperation. But as many of us know all too well, and as today’s passage makes clear, God doesn’t always save us in the way we expect, or in the way we might think He should.

After all, if you were one of those sailing with Paul, wouldn’t you have preferred that your ship had made it all the way to the shore of Malta? But no, God told Paul that the ship would “run aground on some island” (27:26), and that’s exactly what happened. In short, God is always faithful to His Word, even if that Word isn’t always what we want to hear.

Moreover, it would have been so easy for God just to make the storm cease, like Jesus did when He told the Sea of Galilee to “Be still” (Mark 4:39). But instead, the storm ran the ship aground and began to tear it apart. So everyone had to jump overboard and swim for it, or make some sort of makeshift raft from the pieces of the ship (27:43-44). And it is still sometimes the case that God delivers us from difficult situations at least in part through our own efforts, however much we might prefer that He did all the work.

So, why does God save us in challenging ways that are hard to understand? Well, think about what those soldiers had to do when Paul told them that unless the sailors stayed in that doomed ship, they would not be saved (27:31). Instead of letting the sailors take the easy way out, instead of doing what made the most sense to their reason and their experience, the soldiers listened to Paul. They believed his promise and released the ship’s boat, their only obvious method of escape, into the sea (27:32).

In the same way, God calls us to trust Him to save us in His way, and in His time, no matter how little sense His methods make to us, and no matter how hard we may have to work to participate in His plans. For if God did everything the way we wanted Him to, and if He made everything easy, why would any of us need to have faith?

Acts 27:27-44 (ESV)

27 When the fourteenth night had come, as we were being driven across the Adriatic Sea, about midnight the sailors suspected that they were nearing land.
28 So they took a sounding and found twenty fathoms. A little farther on they took a sounding again and found fifteen fathoms.
29 And fearing that we might run on the rocks, they let down four anchors from the stern and prayed for day to come.
30 And as the sailors were seeking to escape from the ship, and had lowered the ship’s boat into the sea under pretense of laying out anchors from the bow,
31 Paul said to the centurion and the soldiers, “Unless these men stay in the ship, you cannot be saved.”
32 Then the soldiers cut away the ropes of the ship’s boat and let it go.
33 As day was about to dawn, Paul urged them all to take some food, saying, “Today is the fourteenth day that you have continued in suspense and without food, having taken nothing.
34 Therefore I urge you to take some food. For it will give you strength, for not a hair is to perish from the head of any of you.”
35 And when he had said these things, he took bread, and giving thanks to God in the presence of all he broke it and began to eat.
36 Then they all were encouraged and ate some food themselves.
37 (We were in all 276 persons in the ship.)
38 And when they had eaten enough, they lightened the ship, throwing out the wheat into the sea.
39 Now when it was day, they did not recognize the land, but they noticed a bay with a beach, on which they planned if possible to run the ship ashore.
40 So they cast off the anchors and left them in the sea, at the same time loosening the ropes that tied the rudders. Then hoisting the foresail to the wind they made for the beach.
41 But striking a reef, they ran the vessel aground. The bow stuck and remained immovable, and the stern was being broken up by the surf.
42 The soldiers’ plan was to kill the prisoners, lest any should swim away and escape.
43 But the centurion, wishing to save Paul, kept them from carrying out their plan. He ordered those who could swim to jump overboard first and make for the land,
44 and the rest on planks or on pieces of the ship. And so it was that all were brought safely to land.