With a Subtitle: See how you're doing with your tongue, your money, your temper, and your patience.
A brief Excerpt: Paul and Barnabas revisited towns to check on new believers, emphasizing the importance of self-assessment in our Christian walk. Regular self-reflection, though challenging, is vital for spiritual growth.
Scripture
Our verse for today comes from Acts 15:36, “Then after some days Paul said to Barnabas, ‘Let us now go back and visit our brothers in every city where we proclaimed the word of the Lord, and see how they are doing.'”
Background
It’s an important thing to take inventory every once in a while. Stores and warehouses do it on a regular basis, sometimes as often as every day. It’s a necessary step to ensure that their financial records are in line with what is really happening with the business. It would be disastrous for a company to roll along for months thinking things were in order when in fact the wheels were coming off and the survival of the business was in jeopardy. There must be regular times of assessment. And how wise it was of Paul to suggest to Barnabas that they go back through the towns they had preached in and see how their brothers in Christ were doing. After all, many of those cities had not given Paul a very friendly send-off. And the same persecutors and accusers that had run Paul away were still in town, undoubtedly making trouble for the new believers.
Application
Kind of sounds like our Christian walk, doesn’t it? We’ve heard the good news, but something still lingers. In spite of our devotion to Jesus, something is hanging around, messing up our books. It could be a previous habit that you can’t seem to shake. Maybe it’s the deceptive calm of doing things like you always have, never feeling the struggle, but never on your knees before God, either. Perhaps you are the thorny soil of the sower’s parable, and the cares of the world and the deceitfulness of riches are choking off what was intended to grow in your heart. Maybe your season of life just seems to leave little time for the things of God. But whatever it is, we are always called to see how we are doing with Jesus. That’s what you find in confession, placing the best of your worst before Him. That’s what His Word will do, revealing what you are open to hear, and challenging you to become what you are not yet. It’s not always a pretty picture, to see how we are doing, especially if we’ve let things pile up. But it’s important, necessary, vital. It keeps you on the path of following Him.
Charge
As we seek Him today, take a few minutes to examine whether you’re spending your days how He would want you to. See how you’re doing with your tongue, your money, your temper, and your patience. Address those areas that need some attention.
Salvation – Eternal Life in Less Than 150 Words
Distributed by – BCWorldview.org