Your Daily Devotional for June 26, 2006

 

June 26, 2006

 

Our Reason for Living?
by Dr. Paul Chappell

“For the love of Christ constraineth us; because we thus judge, that if one died for all, then were all dead: And that he died for all, that they which live should not henceforth live unto themselves, but unto him which died for them, and rose again.”?
II Corinthians 5:14-15

It is obvious that the life of the Apostle Paul included two great motivating factors that kept him going in the Christian life.  These two biblical imperatives gripped his soul and constantly reminded him of what life was all about as a Christian.  The first imperative was that Paul never got over the fact that the Son of God had personally died on the cross for his sin.  He says in verse 14, “For the love of Christ constraineth us...” 

Undoubtedly, there are people who have gotten over it.  There was once a time when their lives were lived for Christ, but now the focus has become pleasure or a career.  No longer is there a compulsion from within to serve with joy.  It has become mundane.  If that is where you are, you should ask the Lord, as the psalmist once did, to restore the joy of your salvation.  Paul’s life never failed to reflect the joy he still had for his salvation.  He was compelled to hazard himself, because he loved Jesus Christ.  He never felt as though he had to do certain things.  He just had a desire for the Lord Jesus Christ.  An understanding of God’s love and grace had not caused him to live carelessly but to live very zealously for the Lord Jesus Christ.  Do you remember the day you were saved?

Another thing Paul never got over was that once he had been saved, God had given him a personal ministry.  God gave him a reason for living.  If all we have to live for is a job or possession, we are living for ourselves.  This becomes a very empty life.  When someone accepts Jesus Christ as Saviour, he has something really big to live for in the Lord Jesus Christ.  That is what Paul is talking about when the Spirit of the Lord inspires him in verse 18 to say, “and hath given to us the ministry of reconciliation.”  Have you come to the place in your life where you have recognized that God has given you the ministry of reconciliation?  I am afraid that many Christians have forgotten their purpose for being born again.  It is not merely to get fire insurance out of Hell.  Our purpose should be to glorify Christ by letting Him work in us and through us.

I once heard of a primary age girl that would go to school every day, trying to be important by having special things in her purse.  She kept Kleenex and other small things that she had gathered form her house, and yet the other girls at school always seemed to have more important things in their purses. One day after school, she decided that she was going to get some really important things to put in her purse.  She went to her mother’s desk and began to look around.  As she began to put things into her purse like pens and pencils, a document caught her attention.  It looked important, and she could read her name on it.  It was her birth certificate.  Folding it up, she put it in her purse to show her friends at school.

The next day as she walked to school, she opened her purse to make sure the certificate was still there.  She was so excited to show her friends at recess!  While she was looking at her birth certificate, a gust of wind blew it out of her hand.  She chased it across the parking lot.  The faster she ran, the further away it seemed to blow ahead of her.  Finally, the wind lifted it up and took it over the fence of the school playground.  She stood at the fence and began to cry.  After a little while, the school janitor came over to her and asked her why she was crying.  Despairingly, she looked up at the man and said, "I just lost my excuse for being born!"

I am afraid that many Christians have lost their excuse for being born again.  They have forgotten the reason that they were saved in the first place. Paul never forgot the reason he was born again! Paul says in I Timothy 1 “Howbeit for this cause I obtained mercy, that in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.” He said “For this cause I obtained mercy.” Why? “That in me first Jesus Christ might shew forth all longsuffering, for a pattern to them which should hereafter believe on him to life everlasting.”

Pray today that God would show you His plan for your life and for what cause you obtained mercy. God might want to use you in full-time Christian service, as a pastor, evangelist, missionary or a Christian school teacher. Maybe, the Lord would just have you faithful to church and giving of your time and resources. Whatever God has planned for you, it will be better than you ever imagined, for he promises in Jeremiah 33:3 “Call unto me, and I will answer thee, and shew thee great and mighty things, which thou knowest not.”

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