Becoming God's Gift to God

I love God’s Word! Nothing is richer, more exciting or more enriching than God’s Word. Right now, one of the places God is feeding my soul from is Acts 20:24!

But I do not account my life of any value nor as precious to myself, if only I may finish my course and the ministry that I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify to the gospel of the grace of God.

It is always dangerous to just study one verse of Scripture or form an understanding from one passage of the Bible. Instead, whatever we know out Scripture should be woven throughout. So while I am sharing Acts 20:24, this one verse is woven into Paul’s life as captured in the book of Acts and the 13 letters that Paul wrote. This verse is Paul’s perspective on his entire walk with Christ and I can’t help but lay my own perspective of my life against Paul’s perspective of his own life. Which leads to 5 introspective questions this verse brings to mind:

•    Do I account my life as valuable or precious to me, in a way that prevents me from living for Christ totally?

•    Conversely, do I account for my life as a gift to God?

•    Is my life “only” about finishing my course and ministry? Or are there rivals to finishing the course?

•    Has my course and ministry been received by Christ? Or, am I running on some other course of someone else’s race and/or of my own imagination?

•    Is the point of my course to testify to the gospel of the grace of God?

The point of Paul’s statement is that he sees his life as belonging to God. Years ago I would hear people say that a guy {not me of course - lol} thinks he is God’s gift to women, or something to that effect. It was always a reflection of the person’s obvious arrogance and their misplaced sense of self-worth. Paul here sees himself, his life, as a gift to God. Not in an arrogant way, but in a way that has Christ as the center of his life. Can I encourage you to pray/ask God those five questions about your own life. My prayer, is that as you ask those questions God will shape and/or reshape your perspective about Him in your heart and relationship with Him.

May God Bless You! Have a great day in Christ.

Edward