Today’s Devotion
Topic: Speak The Word!
Text: Acts 20:20
I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. Amen
The Apostle Paul had traveled with his companions through Assos, Mitylene, the island of Kios, and finally to Miletus. When they arrived, he sent a message to the elders of the church at Ephesus asking them to come and meet him.
Upon their arrival, he addressed them saying, “You know that from the day I set foot in the province of Asia until now, I have done the Lord’s work humbly and with many tears. I have endured the trials that came to me from the plots of the Jews. I never shrank back from telling you what you needed to hear, either publicly or in your homes. I have had one message for Jews and Greeks alike—the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.
“But my life is worth nothing to me unless I use it for finishing the work assigned me by the Lord Jesus—the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God. I declare today that I have been faithful. If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.” (Acts 20: 18- 27)
In these words which were his last before leaving for Jerusalem, Paul was reiterating the fact that God brought him in contact with the people of that region for a purpose which was “the work of telling others the Good News about the wonderful grace of God.” Among them, he had had one message: “the necessity of repenting from sin and turning to God, and of having faith in our Lord Jesus.”
Despite the many trials he faced whiles with them, he discharged this God-given duty to the best of his ability. So much so that he could say, at the end, that “If anyone suffers eternal death, it’s not my fault, for I didn’t shrink from declaring all that God wants you to know.”
Beloved, it is with a divine purpose that God has placed you wherever you find yourself now. There’s a message of reconciliation He has given you for the people around you. Would it be your fault if any of them suffers eternal death, or you would have faithfully done your part? What is your life worth to you if you do not use it to finish the work of telling others about God? This duty isn’t for Pastors, but for everyone who claims to have been saved through Jesus Christ.
Begin to pray. Ask God to help you come up with ways to share the Word with all those He brings you in contact with. Remember Paul’s words; “I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News!” (1 Corin. 9:16)
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