Rays of Hope ~ Tim Stockton

Have you ever regretted a decision that you chose to do and can even hear a memory of someone saying, “I told you that was not a good idea.”  I would have to say that if someone holds a bad decision over us and continually reminds us of a time we may have lapsed in good judgment, that is not a positive thing.  That is not a good friend and though they may have offered wise counsel at one time to be negative towards us continually and to throw it up in our face is not a wise thing to do. 

However, most who are willing to give wise counsel are probably not ones that will rub it in your face if you don’t heed to their advice.  There are times in our lives that it does us well to seek out wisdom from others who have what some say, “been there, done that.” Sometimes experience is better than gained knowledge and a great Biblical example is from the book of Acts chapter 27 when we can read about the time Paul was being transported by ship to Rome.  

On the journey there the winds began to get contrary and from 2 Corinthians Paul later wrote that he had been in 3 shipwrecks already.  From these experiences of being tossed to and fro in a ship in a tumultuous sea and even once for a night and day he had “spent in the deep.”   Acts 27:9-10, “By now much time had passed and the voyage was already dangerous…Paul gave his advice and told them, “I perceive that this trip is headed toward disaster and heavy loss, not only of the cargo and the ship but also of our lives.”  Paul was telling this advice based on his past experiences, not from a “revelation or vision” he had as he did have in the past; or like he did have about the situation days later.   Instead of listening to Paul the owner of the ship, the Captain of the ship and the Roman soldier in charge of delivering the prisoner to Rome dismissed Paul and agreed that it would be okay to continue sailing on.  

They set sail and at first everything seemed alright, but before long a “fierce wind” took control of the ship for 2 weeks those on board were tossed around and sea sick and had come to a point of losing all hope until Paul was able to share with them again a vision that he had now had about their situation.  In Acts 27:21 Paul encourages them, “You should have followed my advice, but now I urge you to take courage because there will be no loss of lives, but only of the ship.” 

We can learn from this story of how important it is to get and then follow wise, godly counsel and that if we decide not to, there will be consequences.  In the book of Proverbs 1:5 it reads, “A wise person will hear and increase learning, and a person of understanding will attain wise counsel.”  

~TRS 11/16/25