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 DEVOTION

THE ACTS OF THE APOSTLES

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Acts 20:17-24

17 From Miletus, Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. 18 When they arrived, he said to them: "You know how I lived the whole time I was with you, from the first day I came into the province of Asia. 19 I served the Lord with great humility and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews. 20 You know that I have not hesitated to preach anything that would be helpful to you but have taught you publicly and from house to house. 21 I have declared to both Jews and Greeks that they must turn to God in repentance and have faith in our Lord Jesus. 22 "And now, compelled by the Spirit, I am going to Jerusalem, not knowing what will happen to me there. 23 I only know that in every city the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. 24 However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me — the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace.

NIV

Paul said that he served the Lord with great humility and with tears, even in the face of opposition from the Jews. This is the first clue about how we should live with great humility and tears. We know what pride looks like, and we need to avoid it strenuously. If we are learning from Jesus, who said for us to do, then we would be gentle and humble of heart. Paul also told them that he did not hesitate to preach anything that would be helpful to them, which is another clue for our lives. When we speak with our fellow believers, we should not hesitate to talk about what would be helpful to them. We should be building others up, but also declaring that both believers and non-believers turn to God in repentance, or with a changed mind. The other truth we are faced with is this compelling sense Paul felt from the Spirit. This is one of the top clues we should ponder with an open heart. Do we live compelled by our own senses, or by the Spirit? Paul felt compelled by the Spirit to go to Jerusalem, not knowing what would happen to him there. That is the core of a Spirit-led life. When we live according to, or are compelled by, the Spirit, then we live outside our own plans. We think all too often that we want our plans to come to pass. That is the way of the world, the way we were raised: to find a path to success, an endeavor for life, to accomplish something, to accumulate stuff important to us. Do we make decisions based on our desires, or will, or are we living under the compulsion of the Spirit? The Spirit warned Paul that he would face prison and hardship, not an apple-pie-in-the-sky type of life. That is not to say we are supposed to be facing hardships, but the point is whether we are living under the compulsion of the Spirit. A key to living by the Spirit is to consider our lives as worth nothing, but to focus on finishing the race and completing the task the Lord Jesus has given us. For Paul, that was testifying to the gospel of God's grace. That could be our task, but we might be compelled by the Spirit to finish another task. The point is, whatever we have been called to or compelled to do, we should run that race to the finish line. How can we stop in the middle of the race? How can we think that we have already finished the race? No, we are compelled by the Spirit to run with the desire to complete the task we have been called to. We must simply run.