Six Ways You Are Like The Apostle Paul

My Utmost For His Highest

 

I will very gladly spend and be spent for your souls… —2 Corinthians 12:15

 

“Once “the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit,” we deliberately begin to identify ourselves with Jesus Christ’s interests and purposes in others’ lives (Romans 5:5). And Jesus has an interest in every individual person. We have no right in Christian service to be guided by our own interests and desires. In fact, this is one of the greatest tests of our relationship with Jesus Christ. The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, Jesus (see John 15:13). I don’t throw my life away, but I willingly and deliberately lay it down for Him and His interests in other people. And I do this for no cause or purpose of my own. Paul spent his life for only one purpose— that he might win people to Jesus Christ. Paul always attracted people to his Lord, but never to himself. He said, “I have become all things to all men, that I might by all means save some” (1 Corinthians 9:22).” CHAMBERS

 

Do you think of yourself as being like Paul or being like one of the unnamed thousands that were saved after Pentecost that you never hear about?  Rather than think about what we do not have in common with Paul, the question is, “What do we have in common with Paul?”  First, we were busy living our own lives.  Doing what we thought was best for us to do.  Not caring much for Jesus.  Perhaps not liking to hear about him from our religious friends.  And then one day … we met Him on the road of life.  And it changed our lives, forever.  “The old passed away and the new had come.” (2 Corinthians 5:17)  Second, the Lord gave us a mission. Unlike Paul, we were not made Apostles, but we were made ambassadors for Christ.  (2 Corinthians 5:20) From that point on, everything we did, everything we said, was to reflect Jesus.  Third, like Paul, we struggle with our flesh, doing what we don’t want to do and not doing what we are supposed to do. (Romans 7).  Fourth, like Paul, we face hardships, trials, disappointments, and like Paul must embrace the truth that we serve a God of all comfort who comforts us in our afflictions, giving us opportunity to bring that same comfort to other people.  (2 Corinthians 1:3-5)  Fifth, that like Paul we have this treasure – our salvation – in jars of clay.  (2 Corinthians 4:7)  Sixth, that we are able to live this new life by putting on the “full armor of God” (Ephesians 6)  This was not a theory Paul had, but they very way he lived his life.

 

So you see, you are like Paul in more ways than you thought .. or wanted to believe.  The fact is that like, us, Paul was a sinner saved by grace with a mission, like us, and was charged with letting his light shine in a world that is bound for Hell without Jesus.  It is time to put your light on “high beams”.  ELGIN

 

Charley Elgin