"what matters most"

Acts 20 MSG

"But there is another urgency before me now.  I feel compelled to go to Jerusalem. I'm completely in the dark about what will happen when I get there. I do know that it won't be any picnic, for the Holy Spirit has let me know repeatedly and clearly that there are hard times and imprisonment ahead. But that matters little. What matters most to me is to finish what God started. The job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all about this incredibly extravagant generosity of God."

I am so challenged today by Paul's faithfulness. He wasn't held back by the hard times but instead he embraced them as a mission he CHOSE to accept, revealed to him through the Holy Spirit.

It is so easy when our circumstances become treacherous in some way to shift our focus to changing the circumstance. To stopping the bleed.  To relieving the pain.  To just get the breakthrough or get to the "other side" of " this".  But the profound nature of Paul's words in Acts 20 tell us that God showed him what awaited him and none of it was good!  (In the natural). Yet, he embraced it.

It is also easy when our circumstance becomes treacherous in some way to become disoriented and sudden confusion can set in about "if" God is still with us!  Circumstances can play such a preeminent role in our lives. If things are going well, we must be "blessed," but if we are in a desert in our health or a winter in our marriage or in a valley of job loss we must be doing something wrong and are no longer living"blessed."  This plays out most clearly as we see how the effect of what is happening around us begins change to what we truly believe and we never truly know what we REALLY believe until our belief is tested.

In our Western world idea of blessing we so easily equate blessing with a lottery comparison! Bags of money falling out of the sky and into our laps!  Blessing cannot be reduced solely to a social status, or financial status.  While those things can be a blessing... THE TRUE blessing is knowing Jesus and the promise of heaven over eternal separation from God!  With this worked out properly in our hearts, we can see ourselves as blessed in ANY condition!  If we assess God's blessing on our lives solely through the lens of money or lack of money, we set ourselves up to be on a roller coaster of believing, God only when we have it and unbelief when we don't!


As we walk through the seasons of our lives it becomes critical to remember the TRUTH of the Word of God, which will always anchor our soul safely in times of trouble.  "I the LORD change not." (Mal. 3:6) "Jesus Christ is the SAME yesterday, today and forever." (Hebrews 13:8)  "Heaven and earth may pass away but my words will never pass away."  (Matt.24:35 )

Paul could have easily thought, "Maybe God isn't with me or maybe God is mad at me." When the Holy Spirit revealed that there would be hard times ahead. Instead Paul didn't take the bait of Satan in that moment that would surely discourage and take away his confidence in the goodness of God and instead said something that shocks me!  He said, "But THAT matters LITTLE!"

He made a conscious choice to magnify, to make large, what matters most.  I'm sure he thought about what awaited him (How could he not?) but he chose to let NOTHING take from him his TRUST in God and His life's assignment and mission.

He said, "what matters to me MOST is to finish what God started: the job the Master Jesus gave me of letting everyone I meet know all About this incredibly extravagant generosity of God."  What mattered to Him most wasn't the  trials and imprisonments, it was victoriously getting the word to the world that Jesus saves!

Our lives really come down to this one thing, finish the task assigned to each one of us who calls upon the Name of Jesus... Let everyone know all about the wonderful gift of salvation through Jesus Christ!  No matter what kind of season we find ourselves in right now, Someone needs your story.  Someone needs to know how much Jesus Loves them and has a plan for their life.  Someone needs to know that Jesus is an "ever present help" IN the storm! Someone needs to know what matters MOST...