Into the Wind!
Relections on
Isaiah 40:29–31 · Acts 27
1 — When You Feel the Weight of Opposition
Can I ask you a personal question today, friend? Are you feeling weighed down by what you’re walking through right now? Perhaps what you’re facing doesn’t feel like a simple season or a passing difficulty. It feels more like a spiritual battle—like unseen forces are pressing in, determined to keep you from stepping into the promises God has placed before you.
Whatever form that pressure is taking in your life, I want you to hear this clearly today: God sees you, and He has not overlooked your struggle.
I have good news for you. In fact, I’m firmly convinced that God Himself is leaning into your situation right now. The Scripture reminds us that the Lord is our refuge and strength, a very present help in trouble. So take a moment to steady your heart. Fix your eyes on His Word. Because the God who has sustained you up to this point is not finished with you. What He is preparing to do in your life will far exceed your expectations—not because of your own strength, but because of His unchanging faithfulness and sovereign plan.
Don’t lose heart. Stand firm on His promises. The Lord is on the move in your life, and He is making a way where you can see no way at all. So…buckle up!
2 — Ready for Take Off
Picture this. A massive commercial airliner sits at the far end of a runway. The engines are thundering. The passengers are settled in their seats. And in that cockpit, the pilot does something that surprises almost everyone the first time they hear it. Before that plane ever moves an inch, the pilot deliberately points the nose of the aircraft straight into the wind. Not away from it. Right into it.
Why would he do that? Here is the simple secret: an airplane rises into the air because of the way air moves across its wings. The faster that air moves, the more lifting power the wing produces. And when a wind is blowing toward the plane — a headwind — it adds to that airflow automatically, almost like a gift. The result is remarkable. The plane takes off sooner, uses less runway, puts less stress on its engines, and climbs with far greater ease than it ever could on a perfectly still day. The very wind that every passenger assumes is slowing them down is, in fact, the very thing helping them get off the ground.
The force that looked like opposition was producing the lift all along.
Maybe you feel like one of the passengers in that plane. Maybe you are feeling the headwind powerfully and believe with all your heart that all is lost and hopeless. If that is you, please consider the exact trial the Apostle Paul faced when out at sea.
3 — Paul in the Storm: Acts 27
In Acts 27 the Holy Spirit preserved for us a story so powerful that it is sure to encourage you. Paul was a prisoner aboard a ship bound for Rome — a voyage God Himself had ordained (see Acts 23:11). From the very first miles, the winds were contrary. In fact, Dr. Luke writes that “the winds were against us” (Acts 27:4). The Greek text indicates that multiple, shifting headwinds made direct passage impossible, forcing a deviation from their intended course. We are talking about an antagonistic force, pressing Paul and his companions back. The Peshitta (Aramaic version) emphasizes the winds as a direct, confronting force (“against our face”). Sounds utterly violent, doesn’t it?
Well, we do not fight against flesh and blood, do we? No. Our battle is against the spiritual forces of darkness. They are the ones opposing us at every turn. But we need not worry. Why? Because God is Sovereign over every headwind of the enemy and will actually use times like that to magnify His holy Name.
As if things could not get worse, Euroclydon struck — a savage, whirling northeastern gale that seized the vessel and refused to release it. For fourteen days, neither sun nor stars appeared. The crew threw the cargo overboard. Then the tackle. Luke writes with devastating simplicity: “All hope of our being saved was at last abandoned.”
But Paul stood up. Not because the storm had stopped. Not because the wind had shifted. He stood because he had a word from God — and a word from God outweighs any word the wind has ever spoken. “I believe God,” he declared in verse 25, “that it will be exactly as I have been told.” Every sailor on that ship was watching the storm. Paul was watching the heavenly Guide! His eyes were fixed on Jesus!
And what was that destination? Rome. The capital of the known world. The city where Paul would stand before Caesar and carry the gospel to the very center of imperial power. The opposing, contrary winds, the Euroclydon, the fourteen days of darkness, the shipwreck on Malta — none of it could alter by a single degree the trajectory God had set. What the enemy intended for Paul’s downfall was the very instrument God used to fulfill His destiny. He preached. He fulfilled every word of his calling. The headwind became the highway. The force the enemy designed to ground him became the very force God used to launch him beyond anything he ever imagined possible.
Maybe I am speaking to someone today. I want you to listen carefully: What was sent to stop you is secretly assigned to lift you. The very wind you feel pressing you backward is the very wind God will use to push you forward! What hell dispatched as opposition, Heaven has already commissioned as elevation. You must remember, the opposition was never against you. It was always — always — working for you.
So, dear child of God, take courage! Like the people in Isaiah’s day, you may feel worn out. But God has the same word for you that He had for them.
“He gives power to the faint, and to him who has no might He increases strength. Even youths shall faint and be weary, and young men shall fall exhausted — but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles…”
Isaiah 40:29–31, ESV
4 — The Eagle and the Headwind
The eagle understands what so many of us spend a lifetime resisting: opposing winds are not your enemies. They are your allies in disguise. Eagles do not flee the wind — they face it. They spread their great wings and lean into the very current that seems to be pushing against them, because that same current is what carries them upward. What looks like resistance becomes elevation. What feels like pressure becomes support. What seems to block the way becomes the very thing that carries them higher than they could ever have climbed on their own.
Let the Spirit have His way in your life. Spread your wings. Face the opposition, knowing full well that the Lord is Lord over all!