As I watched and listened to Barnabas and Paul, I witnessed two men for whom no cost was too great to spread the name of Jesus throughout the world. They were constantly on the road in new cities, facing danger and challenges everywhere they traveled. Fleeing for their lives from one city, they immediately begin preaching in the next. Paul was even stoned in Lystra. Despite being stoned, he and Barnabas moved on to Derbe where they immediately began preaching. Paul must have been quite a sight since he was the chief speaker of the duo.
Nothing seemed to deter them. A problem here, they move on to there, and so on.
My life, in reflection shows little, if any, willingness to pay a great cost for the Gospel. I certainly have not faced one-tenth of one percent the cost these men have faced. Why I wonder? I know I have been asked to walk a different road, but I am hard pressed to say I have truly sacrificed for the Gospel, much less suffered.
Questions circle. Self-examination continues…
Lord God, have I been disobedient? Have I missed Your cues and calls or is it more simply that my walk of faith is so very different than theirs?
Lord, have I done all You have asked of me? Show me where I have been lax, afraid, unfaithful. Show me, Lord, so that in the coming decades, or as long as You give me to live, I will be faithful. That I will witness and preach to everyone You bring to me and I will support Your causes and Your church faithfully with time, talent and finances, so that Your Gospel reaches the farthest shores and deepest inlands of the earth. To Jesus, the Father, and the Spirit, I pray through Jesus’ name. Amen.
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