Just a few interesting thoughts from what we've been reading in Acts during church.
We read through Acts 21:1-14 this week in church and it was very eye opening for me. We had already learned that Paul was feeling the Holy Spirit moving him to Jerusalem but that he was also being told by the Spirit that he would be bound and suffer while he was there. He was also in a hurry to get there for passover which must have been such a strange feeling - being in a hurry to go somewhere you knew you would suffer.
Acts 21 though, was describing the interactions Paul had with the people in Tyre and Caesarea and Paul reactions to all of it. Our pastor Steve brought up a few points that have really stuck with me. We normally think of temptation in reference to doing what other people know is wrong but Paul here was being tempted by loving Christians and leaders whom he respected, to turn from where the Spirit was calling him. It's just another example of Paul's dedication to the future of the gospel and the work of the Lord.
Another idea that Steve brought up goes against what many "popular" Christian pastors and speakers preach, which is that God wants you to have all good things and wants your life to be filled with "stuff" that makes you happy and fulfilled. I've heard a very popular southern pastor actually say "If God takes away your car, you can put your faith in Him to give you a better one." Really? Umm, that isn't exactly what the bible says... in fact, Jesus' preaching encourages us to see that all we need is God and that all the material possessions we desire and take security in are fading and in fact, can bring us further from God.
Anyway, both of these things have made me think about the purposes God has for me and where I am placing my confidence - a subject I think I've talked about before and am always bringing up. Paul was so confident in God's leading that despite all the pleading from people he loved (people who were genuinely worried about him) and despite the public opinion of the church and other leaders, he still stuck with what God was telling him. People would have completely backed him in a decision to stay and serve in Tyre or Caesarea but he insisted on going where he knew he would suffer. And I don't think it was because the Spirit was more clear with him than it is with us today - we have the same Spirit available to us each moment we breathe. Paul was so incredibly dedicated to God's purposes that he stayed in constant communication and just did was he knew he should.
Steve said that the road to following God's plan for us is not often the one paved smoothly, but the rocky, hard road that is filled with troubles, suffering and trials. This road though, has an eternal joy that cannot be met at any other place and brings eternal rewards that are unmatched by anything this corrupted world can offer. I pray that God makes me able and gives me the courage to believe this as deeply as Paul did... I am confident that God's plans for our lives contain far more than what we settle for and I want to stop settling.
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