PLEASE READ THIS FIRST: Acts 20:13-24
What do you sense the Lord saying to you in this passage?
“To finish the race and to complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me.” (Acts 20:24)
Paul has a very clear sense of calling and purpose.
This is his mission statement: “testifying to the good news of God’s grace!” (Acts 20:24)
Can you express your sense of calling and purpose in one sentence?
Each person will express it differently, but we it does help to know it.
Many years ago the Lord have me a sense of what my purpose was.
‘To have a close, personal relationship with the Lord, and to help others have the same!’
Again and again the Lord calls me back to this personal mission statement.
I’m not called to build churches, run programs, be a counselor or community leader.
It is both clarifying and motivating to have a clear sense of purpose.
When life gets complicated or confusing, its the bottom line we go back to.
The Spirit is compelling me to go into every day and to do this…
“With great humility and with tears and in the midst of severe testing.” (Acts 20:19)
The enemy wants to keep me from this, and will anything to stop or sidetrack me.
The Lord is using Paul today to remind me to renew my passion for my mission.
PRAYER
Lord, I admit I have many competing aims in my life. But I sense Your Spirit calling me back to your purpose for me. I choose again today to devote myself to completing the task you have given me.
I totally appreciate the Apostle Paul’s sensitivity to the church at Ephesus – he calls them to come to him at Miletus so that he can explain his reasons for not stopping at Ephesus. Paul knew how the church may have been discouraged because he was enroute but did not visit. Calling them in, the elders could convey back to the church and they were all then privy to Paul’s next steps – so that the church at Ephesus could also pray for Paul – as time unfolds. In a family of believers we also need to be open and honest with each other – sensitive to the need for helping others understand and to be able to pray knowingly for us! Too often we keep things to ourselves – we don’t share that medical concern or apprehension about something – we don’t need to share with everyone – but it is important to have other believers who know us and whom we can trust and confide in. No one knows us better than Jesus!
And what does the Lord God require of me?
To serve Him in all I do and say. Wherever I am, I need to ‘bloom’ where I am planted. Each day anew I greet the Lord and walk in His ‘SonShine’ knowing that He continues to lead and guide me in the Way I should go. I just need to be open to His leading, His voice saying, This is the way. Walk in it.
When we walk with the Lord in the light of His Word
What a glory He sheds on our way!
While we do His good will, He abides with us still
And with all who will trust and obey
Trust and obey, for there’s no other way
To be happy in Jesus, but to trust and obey