A Better Force

Living a life according to the gospel places us in a position to receive. It starts when we believe and receive Christ as our Savior. Then we receive the Spirit as the seal for our salvation and we receive gifts to use in this life. We often want to use these gifts that God gives to us for His glory or the overflow of what we deem necessary as a gift to God, but this approach does not match how Paul thinks of others or how to serve others. He is obedient to God’s instructions and willing to suffer for others because we are a better force for the gospel when we work together with God and together with each other for the gospel.
Paul’s suffering was inspiring in his words. He was currently a prisoner of Nero because of the events recorded in Acts 25:11-12. The incident that led to his appeal to Caesar was sparked by a Jewish crowd when he told them about God’s call to send him to the Gentiles and the crowd responded in an uproar because they wanted to take his life right then (Acts 22:21-22). From there he was taken into custody of the soldiers.
Most of us will never know the stress of looking people in the eye who truly want us dead because of what we say. But Paul handled it with grace because he believed his faith and life were to be used for the benefit of someone else and he accepted God’s call of to serve others.
Take steps of faith to intentionally benefit others for the sake of them receiving Jesus.