Selflessness

Today's Daily Soap {Scripture | Observation | Application | Prayer}

• S: Acts 21:4, 11, 13
• O: Their message to Paul, from insight given by the Spirit, was "Don't go to Jerusalem." ... "This is what the Holy Spirit says: The Jews in Jerusalem are going to tie up the man who owns this belt just like this and hand him over to godless unbelievers." ... But Paul wouldn't budge: "Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You're looking at this backward. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can't you see that?"
• A: It can be so easy, sometimes, to look at the world in terms of the impact it has on me personally. Most of us do it. It's always, "that car cut me off," or "I just can't afford the price of gas," or "did you drink the last soda?" It can be so much more, in fact, such as favoring abortion because you want to live the kind of life where you might need one some day. Or maybe you just don't stop to help a disabled motorist because you might be late for work. Or, and I'll bet I'm not the only one guilty of this one at times, hesitating to share the word of God with someone because they just might laugh at you. But what of Paul? He was lead by the Lord to go to Jerusalem. Clearly being told by others not to go to Jerusalem because he would be tortured, how did he reply? Did he fear for his own safety? Maybe. But did he let that fear dictate his actions? Absolutely not. Instead, he explained that what happened to him was not at all important -- that whatever God accomplished through Paul's obedience by going to Jerusalem was worth any price he might pay. Must we live a self-centered existence? Or might we reap greater rewards by letting the Lord use us to accomplish his will?
• P: Lord, use me.

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