Day 21 - 28 Day Challenge

Backward Thinking?

After saying goodbye to his friends at Ephesus he set out for Jerusalem, stopping along the way to meet other believers, partying on the way. (v5) I love it that the great Apostle Paul knew how to party.

Agabus the prophet turns up and lets other people in on what Paul's already knows Jerusalem is going to be a difficult destination. His friends worried about his safety try to get Paul to change his plan but Paul would have none of it. As I read his reply to them toady it really got inside me I had to stop reading for a few minutes and just let it sink in.

Paul knew he was walking headlong into a whole heap of trouble, maybe a little like Jesus years earlier on his way to Jerusalem, and he says this: (v13)

“Why all this hysteria? Why do you insist on making a scene and making it even harder for me? You’re looking at this backwards. The issue in Jerusalem is not what they do to me, whether arrest or murder, but what the Master Jesus does through my obedience. Can’t you see that?”

It was not about him and what may happen to him it was about what Jesus could do through him being obedience. Paul knew that the most important thing he could do in his life was to obey his master. Obey when things were great, obey when things were tough and yes obey even when it meant his life. Now that's devotion!