Here’s a simple question for you…do you have enough? Do you have for example enough food at home? Do you have enough clothing in the closet to wear? Your physical needs, do you have enough? Chances are, if you have been able to eat today, and could go outside wearing clothes and shoes, then you have enough. Maybe you even have MORE than enough. You know, when I sit down and think about it, I have been able to eat every day, and to have clothes to wear every day. I have also been blessed enough so that I can put gas in the car and drive to work. I have a roof over my head at night, and loving relationships. When I count my blessings, it does seem that I have more than enough. But why is it that I act as if I don’t? Why is it that if my checking account balance drops below 100 dollars, I start to feel anxious? Why is it that when I look at the circulars in the weekend newspaper, I start to think about all the things I want to buy but can’t? Don’t I already have enough ‘things’ in my life?

The fact is that when I am consumed with thoughts about caring for my own life, I am missing out on a key element of faith. The element of trusting the Lord to keep his promises. God has so many promises about caring for me in His Word, but it seems like I pay them little heed. Isaiah 58:11 says: The LORD will guide you always; he will satisfy your needs in a sun-scorched land and will strengthen your frame. You will be like a well-watered garden, like a spring whose waters never fail.

Yet even still, I begin to fret when I don’t think I have enough money to cover my wants.

Paul wrote in Philippians 4:19 And my God will meet all your needs according to his glorious riches in Christ Jesus.

The Lord Himself says “do not worry about your life, what you will eat; or about your body, what you will wear.”

Then why is it that I still do these things? James has the answer:

You want something but don’t get it. You kill and covet, but you cannot have what you want. You quarrel and fight. You do not have, because you do not ask God. When you ask, you do not receive, because you ask with wrong motives, that you may spend what you get on your pleasures.

I am anxious because my motives are wrong, the object of my trust is misplaced. I am more concerned with my own pleasures than the needs of others, and I am putting more trust in a nice bank account than I am on the Lord of the Universe. The key to rectifying this situation is also found in James 4: Humble yourselves before the Lord, and he will lift you up.

You know, when David was feeling the most anxious, he would pour out his heart to God, and invariably, before his complaint was over, he praised his redeemer. Check out Psalm 55:

Listen to my prayer, O God, do not ignore my plea; hear me and answer me. My thoughts trouble me and I am distraught at the voice of my enemy, at the stares of the wicked; for they bring down suffering upon me and revile me in their anger. My heart is in anguish within me…Fear and trembling beset me.

And then, David writes: But I call to God and the Lord saves me. Evening, morning and noon I cry out in distress and he hears my voice. Cast your cares upon the Lord and he will sustain you, he will never let the righteous fall.

Where could David go to read such comforting words? But thanks to God that we are able to turn to the Psalms and find strength in his experience.

I’ve been intrigued recently over a certain passage of scripture in 1st Timothy.

18Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, 19holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

The portion that has intrigued me is the concept of shipwrecked faith. What does that look like? How does that happen? Is it a spiritually fatal condition? Let’s dig in a little bit together.

Paul writes to Timothy “Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith”. The usage of the word in 1 Timothy 1:18 means to ‘make a shipwreck of your faith’. The tense means that for the people Paul is referring to, it happened all at once, in the past.

In order to understand the implications of this concept, I need to ponder what a shipwreck is, and how a shipwreck happens. A shipwreck is the partial or complete destruction of the vessel at sea. It means that the ship is ruined or destroyed.

You’ve probably seen movies of ships running aground or being destroyed in a storm; all the passengers go into the briny deep, all the ships contents fall overboard and drop to the bottom, and the ship itself is broken into splinters as it crashes against rocks and it broken apart by waves. Imagine…Paul is talking about this sort of thing happening to your faith!

A ship is a vessel that is on a journey from point A to point B. Like a ship, we are on a journey of faith, from right where we are now toward increasing sanctification. We know we don’t dock our ships until we leave this life, and that the journey for us is where the growing and learning happens.

But if we shipwreck our faith, the journey, so to speak, is over. We’re done. There’s no more moving toward the prize, no more forward momentum. We’re cast adrift, marooned, stranded. Clearly, a faith that is shipwrecked is a bad thing.

What are the factors in a shipwreck? Shipwrecks happen when the vessels move off course. The veer from their appointed, approved routes into uncharted territories where there can be dangerous conditions. Shipwrecks occur when ships sail blindly into unknown reefs, treacherous currents or hidden hazards.

Spiritual shipwrecks occur when we move away from what we know to be true, and into areas where subjectivity and speculations lead us into error. Paul references this in 1 Timothy when he writes “command certain men not to teach false doctrines any longer nor to devote themselves to myths and endless genealogies. These promote controversies rather than God’s work—which is by faith.” When we move away from solid, Biblical doctrine, we wander into dangerous spiritual territory and put our spiritual journey at risk.

18Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, 19holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

Having your faith shipwrecked is a devastating occurrence, one that might be virtually impossible to recover from. It is something we want to avoid, and if we know how they happen, we’ll be better prepared. First, shipwrecks happen when ships veer off course into unknown waters. Second, shipwrecks happen when the vessel is unprepared for the storms at sea. Every ship’s captain knows that there is always the possibility of rough water, and so he makes sure that he knows the weather patterns and forecasts before he sails. If they do sail into a storm, the Captain knows how to batten down the hatches and secure the ship.

We prepare for the storms of life by knowing what we believe, by knowing our own weaknesses, by knowing what to do and where to go when we find ourselves in trouble. Being unprepared means that the storms can overwhelm us, crush our faith, and leave us rejecting God. Paul references this when he writes in 1 Timothy 1: fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

A third way shipwrecks happen is when the Captain is foolhardy, reckless and lacking good sense. Have you ever seen the movie “The Perfect Storm”? If so, you know that the captain of the Andrea Gale foolishly went too far out to sea in order to satisfy his pride. He took a big risk, and put not only himself and his ship in danger, but also the lives of his crew.

In a similar way, God has given each of us a conscience that is finely tuned to let us know when we are doing something right or wrong. It is our failsafe mechanism, letting us know if we are stepping out-of-bounds or are safely in bounds. Being reckless in our spiritual life, letting our hubris or overconfidence get the better of us can have tragic results. Think of the man who tells himself that his secret affair is ok, even when his conscience is screaming at him to stop. These kinds of stories rarely end well, and can wreak true havoc, not only in the person’s own life, but the lives of others.

Paul writes to Timothy: fight the good fight, holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith.

Rejecting the clear calls of our God-given conscience can be a warning that there is a shipwreck looming ahead.

We all stand in need of someone to do for us what we can’t do on our own. What if somehow, we found ourselves shipwrecked, alone on our own spiritual desert island? Our boat destroyed, and being completely stranded? How would we get off of that island? There’s only one way, isn’t there. We’d have to be rescued…and that is the glimmer of hope I see in our conversation about shipwrecked faith. Even though it is a disaster, it doesn’t need to mean everything is finished. We can still have faith in the fact that Jesus Saves. When we have wrecked our boats, the only place left to turn is to Jesus, who can rescue us out of the predicament we’ve put ourselves in.

Hey, this is Scott Thunder. Thanks so much for listening to the program and for dropping by the blog. There’s not going to be much right off the bat, but keep checking back for some of my musings. Feel free to post a comment…let me know what you like on the program, what maybe you don’t like, or any special requests. Let’s keep in touch here, maybe start a dialog or two. Word And Worship Weekly is all for you, to encourage, entertain, inspire and maybe even challenge you. And ultimately, everything is for the glory of our Lord Jesus Christ. God bless you and thanks again for stopping by!