The Daily Word: Tuesday, September 10th, 2019
Isaiah 6:1-7:25
2 Corinthians 11:16-33
Psalm 54:1-7
Proverbs 23:1-3
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Commentary from Pastor Michael White:
Are they ministers of Christ?–I speak as a fool–I am more: in labors more abundant, in stripes above measure, in prisons more frequently, in deaths often. From the Jews five times I received forty stripes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods; once I was stoned; three times I was shipwrecked; a night and a day I have been in the deep… – 2 Cor 11:23-25
Paul was willing to lose his life for Jesus. He was willing to give everything he had to serve God with all his heart. He was beaten for his faith: not only was he “beaten with rods,” but “five times” he received 39 lashes from the cat of nine tails, which was a leather whip laden with bone and metal spikes designed to tear the flesh from a man’s back. He was imprisoned for his preaching, and left to die after being stoned. He was shipwrecked three times as he traveled from church to church ministering the Gospel, and on one of those occasions, he spent a day and a half in the water, waiting for rescue to come.
The truth of the matter is this: none of that suffering made Jesus love the Apostle Paul any more. Paul wasn’t willing to experience all of that because he wanted more love; He was willing to go through it all because he understood he already had the complete and infinite love of God.
When you know how much God loves you, you can get through anything. I pray that whatever you are going through today, you face it with the understanding that God loves you more than you can ever imagine: so much, in fact, that He gave His Only Son on the Cross, so that you might have the promise of eternal life.
Prayer:
Father, thank You for the gift of Jesus on the Cross. I am just like Paul. I know You love me with all of Your heart! And that means I can – and I am willing – to go through whatever is required to tell the world just how good You are, in Jesus’ name!
Archives
See commentary from this day in 2014.
See commentary from this day in 2015.
See commentary from this day in 2016.
See commentary from this day in 2017.
See commentary from this day in 2018.
© Michael D. White, 2019. All rights reserved.