Strive As Paul Strove

June 6

"I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given to me - the task of testifying to the gospel of God's grace," Acts 20:24.

The Apostle Paul has done more to further the gospel than has any other evangelist of any period in time. The Oral Roberts and Kathryn Kuhlmans and Billy Grahams of the 20th Century don’t even come close to him in number of souls reached for Christ in spite of their shared advantage of modern technology.

Yet it has never been about numbers. For each of them the only relevant number is one—the ONE. It has been about the One True and Living Christ who bore our sins and carried our sorrows (see Isaiah 53:4); it has been about sharing the truth of Him with everyone who has walked the earth.

When Paul was cast into a Roman dungeon, chained and in the continual presence of a guard, he did not count his ministry as over. No, he used the time of his imprisonment, the time awaiting his execution, to pen the glorious words of scripture that we read today in much of the New Testament.
As he wrote of himself, his only desire was that he would be given the time to conclude the race the Lord had set before him; that he would be able to complete the task of sharing the good news of the gospel of God’s grace to the masses.

Today, his prayer is still being answered. His supplication has been granted in many ways. The words which he wrote are still being read and they are still being preached from pulpits around the world. In countries where the Bible is banned, the word of the Lord, including those from Paul’s pen, are being hidden in the hearts of men.

Modern day evangelists are spreading the Good News near and far through the convenience of technology that allows safe, speedy travel as well as provides almost instant communication from one point in the globe to another in the blink of an eye.

If you, dear reader, are in a quandary as to how you may be effective for Christ, may you appropriate the philosophy of Paul and simply do what you can do from where you are. As he could not imagine the gospel going forth from his prison cell with the power it has attained, neither can you begin to dream of what the Lord may do with your surrendered effort in the behalf of His Kingdom.

But He does promise that “eye has not seen, ear has not heard, neither has it entered the heart of man what has been prepared for those who love Him,” I Corinthians 2:9, so should we not strive to avail every person whose life touches ours of the ability to realize the fullness of that assurance?

Should we not strive as Paul strove, as the evangelists of our day strive to assure that “not one should be lost, but all should come to a saving knowledge of Christ,” even as the impetuous Apostle declared in II Peter 3:9.