Ok, I totally ripped this entire blog post from Oswald Chambers. My Utmost for His Highest is, more often than not, one of those books that when I read the entries I feel like he is writing directly to me. Today is one of those days and I wanted to share.
Paul states here that the call of God is to preach the gospel. But remember what Paul means by "the gospel", namely, the reality of redemption in our Lord Jesus Christ. We are inclined to make sanctification the goal of our preaching. Paul refers to personal experiences only by way of illustration, never as the end of the matter. We are not commissioned to preach salvation or sanctification - we are commissioned to lift up Jesus Christ (John 12:32 -"And I, when I am lifted up from the earth, will draw all people to myself."). It is an injustice to say that Jesus Christ labored in redemption to make me a saint. Jesus Christ labored in redemption to redeem the whole world and to place it perfectly whole and restored before the throne of God. The fact that we can experience redemption illustrates the power of its reality, but that experience is a byproduct and not the goal of redemption. If God were human, how sick and tired He would be of the constant requests we make for our salvation and for our sanctification. We burden his energies from morning till night asking for things for ourselves or for something from which we want to be delivered! When we finally touch the underlying foundation of the reality of the gospel of God, we will never bother Him anymore with little personal complaints.
The one passion of Paul's life was to proclaim the gospel of God. He welcomed heartbreak, disillusionment, and tribulation for only one reason - these things kept him unmovable for his devotion to the gospel of God.
This speaks so deeply to my soul. I've been selfish in my prayer life. And I've been narrow minded. I'm encouraged and challenged by this today.
