After we were brought safely through… (ESV)

I had a Maltese friend who had lived in the UK for many years, but he loved his native island, and was happy to return and visit some of his old haunts. I remember him showing me a picture of St. Paul’s Bay, which, it is thought, is where, or close to where Paul and his shipmates came safely ashore.

Someone said, ‘If God brings you to it, He’ll bring you through it.’

Some storms are long and dark, so much so that we may feel like Paul did when he wrote in 2 Corinthians 1:8,9a:

”For we do not want you to be unaware, brothers, of the affliction we experienced in Asia. For we were so utterly burdened beyond our strength that we despaired of life itself. 9 Indeed, we felt that we had received the sentence of death.” (ESV)

But as Paul goes on to observe though, God’s intention was to cause them to rely on Him – the One who raises the dead – and not themselves (9b). He always has a purpose in our trials, whether we discern it at the time or not; and eventually we will be able to say of every trial we ever had, ‘It came to pass’.