Keeping the Faith; Never losing Hope; Always Loving

I Corinthians 9:16 “Yet preaching the Good News is not something I can boast about. I am compelled by God to do it. How terrible for me if I didn’t preach the Good News.”

Here Paul is talking to the Corinthians about his relationship with them; as he does this in this Chapter he moves into a conversation around his call and mission as a follower of Jesus. He describes his call to preach as something that has a hold on him. He can’t do anything else and be happy. This preaching is not something to boast about it is who God desires him to be and to be anything else would lead to a miserable life. There is no other option; this is the reason for his whole existence; God compels him to be a proclaimer of the Good News and any other life would be a terrible existence.

Yep, this is it in a nutshell. Believe me, if I thought I could shake this thing I would. But even in the midst of loosing myself it is a good loss. Through the saving love of Jesus Christ I am compelled by that same love to live out God’s call upon my life. Anything else would be terrible. The fact of the matter that I can’t shake this call proves that God’s hand has a hold of my life and is compelling me to live, be, and act a certain way. This is true for all of us, when we experience the saving love of Jesus Christ we are made into a new creation and the result is we are compelled to do something with our lives. Jesus has a hold on us and to live differently from how he is compelling us to live is a terrible existence. This works both ways, lets take preaching for example. There are many preachers that don’t feel what Paul is describing here and they are “preachers” because they thought it was the right thing to do and they have a terrible existence. They are always bitter about the church; complaining; its obvious that they are not being compelled to be proclaimers of the word. At the same time there are many who are compelled to be proclaimers of the word but yet they never answer the call and this life is a terrible existence. Simply, when we are saved, God saves us to do something with us, to compel us to do a certain thing with our life that we just can’t shake and until we submit to that compelling (call) we will live a frustrated, terrible existence it is only when we submit to that call that we begin to experience the life that Jesus saved us to begin living in the first place.

Jesus, I thank you for giving me the grace to accept your call upon my life. As much as I resisted my call to preach I thank you that your grace was more powerful then my resistance. Thank you for saving me and compelling me to live out your call upon my life. May you continue to use me as your instrument within my call to preach/lead that you may accomplish your purposes and others may be saved and answer your compelling call upon their lives. Thanks for letting me join you in loving the world to heaven. Amen.

I’ve been saved, called, and empowered to join God in loving the world to heaven!

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