02/24/2017
My wife used to say that I could easily pick up the life of a hermit. I have to admit that over the years I have been tempted on occasion to withdraw to a place where all I needed to survive would be food, shelter, and God, but is a monastic life why God sent Jesus to die for us? I don't think so.
Oswald Chambers spoke about this during my devotional reading this morning. He reached the same conclusion that I did. Let's read an excerpt as he spoke of Jesus as his friend and his desire to follow his life...
"The delight of sacrifice is that I lay down my life for my Friend, not fling it away, but deliberately lay my life out for Him and His interests in other people, not for a cause. Paul spent himself for one purpose only - that he might win men to Jesus Christ." - Oswald Chambers
It would be nearly impossible to win men to Christ if we separated ourselves from them and lived alone in a hermit's shack on the side of a mountain in some wilderness. We need to interact as Jesus did in order to save souls, and we need to do this because we love Him... not just because we feel that it is a mission we are required to complete.
Paul was truly in love with Jesus, and he was overcome by His very presence in his life; so much so that he lived in reckless abandon in regard to winning souls. Paul even spoke of giving up his own relationship with Christ if it would win others to Him.
“For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kinsmen according to the flesh.”
Romans 9:3 ESV
But, that didn't happen and, quite honestly, I believe such a separation would most certainly have been a death sentence for Paul. What He did instead was to change his life so that he might reach and save people.
“To the weak I became weak, that I might win the weak. I have become all things to all people, that by all means I might save some.”
1 Corinthians 9:22 ESV
When we give ourselves over to Jesus and seek to save as He did, it isn't all about the suffering. Although we will suffer in our lives and efforts, there is also a blessing for us...
“I do it all for the sake of the gospel, that I may share with them in its blessings.”
1 Corinthians 9:23 ESV
We are blessed when we save the lost; the sinners. Do you remember the exhilaration of that moment when you first gave yourself to Jesus? Well, in winning a lost soul to Him we are quickened just the same, and the blessing of that moment overcomes us once more... if it was done in love, as Jesus saved. We read of why He sacrificed for us... He even tells us why Himself:
“"This is my commandment, that you love one another as I have loved you. Greater love has no one than this, that someone lay down his life for his friends.”
John 15:12-13 ESV
Jesus loved.
So the inclination of the life of a hermit should be overcome by our relationship with Jesus. In his love we find companionship with all men and women for the purpose of salvation. Our love for Jesus will most assuredly lead us to a love for all men... and a desire to save their souls.
Prayer:
Father, I thank you for your Son Jesus Christ and the impact He has had on my life. I thank you for His leading me out of a desire for solitude and into a love for you and all those around me. Help me Lord, through the aid of your Holy Spirit, to reach out to lost sinners in the love of Christ, that I might bring them to Jesus and redemption. Let the outward and exuberant life of Jesus inspire me to reach into the world of others as He did, and to follow your will to its fullest... even if into suffering. I praise your name Father, and relish those quiet times when just the two of us speak, but I know in my heart from those times comes encouragement for renewed vigor in my quest to reach out to those around me; to win them for your kingdom. Strengthen me, and remove the barriers that hide my spirit of love from the world. Let me be as if the hands and words of Christ to those who need you most.
Rich Forbes