Tuesday,
June 27, 2023
Every time I think
of you, I give thanks to my God. Whenever I pray, I make
my requests for all of you with joy, for you have been my partners in
spreading the Good News about Christ from the time you first heard it until
now. And I am certain that God, who began the good work
within you, will continue his work until it is finally finished on the day when
Christ Jesus returns. Philippians 1:3-6
There’s a question that must be answered before leaving all the “Mudville”
stuff:
Who are the most joyful people?
It stands to reason that believers who practice their
faith would be the most joyful. As
participating partners in the faith we share together the mystery and splendor
of the gospel ... and that produces some things:
JOY OF PURPOSE
Paul called himself a servant. The word literally means “slave”. That doesn’t sound too joyful, but in ancient
times a servant could come and go as he pleased, within certain limits. A slave, however, was a lifetime property
of his master. Paul humbly addressed
himself as a slave of Jesus Christ.
It takes a great deal of humility to enslave yourself to another. What can make a person do something like
that? Paul sensed that being In Christ was greater than anything else
life offered. Paul was a
"mainstream mover and shaker" of the highest order! Then he met Jesus on the road to Damascus,
and he discovered all that self stuff was empty – empty – empty! Paul had been climbing social, political, and
personal ladders, but compared to the loveliness of Christ, all that personal
fulfillment stuff paled, lost its attractiveness, and faded into oblivion.
Paul used the phrase In Christ or In the Lord some 150 times in his epistles. Much like a fish lives in water, Paul could feel the close, comforting,
compelling presence of Jesus in every waking moment. Paul had given himself over to the cause of
Christ – it had become his purpose. There
is something unique and joyful about people who are driven from within, in a
noble cause that is from above.
In the novel, The Man Who Lost Himself[1] a detective is trailing a man
in Paris. He wants to know if the man he
was after stopped at a certain hotel. He
went to the clerk at the desk and gave his own name, asking if he was
there. He knew he wasn't registered; he
wanted to have the clerk search the register so he could peek! But, to his surprise, the clerk looked up and
said, Yes, he has been looking for you.
He's in room #40; I'll have you shown right up. What could the detective do? He followed the clerk to the room, whereupon
opening the door, the man came face to face with another man who looked
remarkably like himself, just 20 years older.
The story behind that story is that there is a person out there whom you
must face someday. It is the person
you're becoming. How is that
happening? The purpose to which you give
yourself will define the person you will become. Paul gave himself to Christ as Lord and
Master – slave for life!
For You Today
There are about 2,500 devotional
posts and 400 sermons in the Rocky Road Devotions library.
Title Image:
via Pixabay.com Images without citation are in
public domain. Unless noted, Scripture
quoted from NLT©
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