| “And the night following the Lord stood by him, and said, Be of good cheer, Paul: for as thou hast testified of Me in Jerusalem, so must thou bear witness also at Rome” (Acts 23:11). |
| “And now I [Paul] exhort you to be of good cheer: for there shall be no loss of any man’s life among you, but of the ship … Wherefore, sirs, be of good cheer: for I believe God” (Acts 27:22, 25). |
| These verses are concerned with the Apostle Paul’s journey to Rome. When the Lord spoke to him in our first verse, Paul had been taken prisoner in Jerusalem, and would spend two years in prison in Caesarea before being sent to Rome. But Paul knew that he would go to Rome, and that he would get there safely, for the Lord had told him so. The Lord Himself told Paul to “be of good cheer,” and after that, Paul could endure the difficulty of being held in prison for two years, and then being taken as a prisoner to Rome. |
| When he was finally sent to Rome, he was put on one ship, then later placed on a ship of Alexandria. Alexandria was a port in Egypt at the mouth of the Nile River, and the ship was probably a grain ship, since much of the grain in the Roman Empire was grown in Egypt. These ships were large and could carry up to 2,500 tons of grain. The ship on which Paul sailed also carried 276 people, in addition to grain. It was a large ship for those days. But the Lord allowed this ship to be broken up in a storm, and Paul and the others were shipwrecked on the island of Melita, now known as Malta. |
| What is important to notice is that because Paul had been told by the Lord to “be of good cheer,” and had been told how the journey would end, later he too could tell the men on the ship to “be of good cheer,” even when they were in the middle of a serious storm, and the others had given up hope of their being saved. As a result the others eventually were “all of good cheer,” and took some food, along with Paul. |
| The world today is in a serious state, and many are very afraid of what may happen. But you and I know where our journey will end, and we can not only be of good cheer ourselves, but can encourage others too. We can tell them how they can be saved, and how they too can “be of good cheer.” The future is always bright for the believer, for he knows where the journey will end. |
