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“But I do not make my life of any account nor dear to myself, so that I may finish my course and the ministry which I received from the Lord Jesus, to testify solemnly of the gospel of the grace of God.”

Acts 20:24, LSB

Jesus was not part of Paul’s original life plan, but once He was called, nothing else was of greater importance than proclaiming the Gospel. Not everyone will have as spectacular a call story as Paul’s, but for all who are believers in Jesus Christ, they have a calling.  God desires the proclamation of the Gospel to be central to everything because it is life-giving, and as more people come to Christ, not only are their lives transformed, but communities are transformed as well. Many noble pursuits stand before us, but everything pales in comparison to this. For Paul, it became His all in all, and this is what our Lord desires of you and of me. When we place everything beneath our Lord, we may find that the desires of our hearts align with the desires of our Lord. However, if we find they do not, our Lord calls us to different pursuits and will lead us in paths which He has prepared, and nothing will be of greater import than to live into that calling. Paul could do nothing else, and our Lord wants our hearts to be driven in such a way. He could’ve rejected God’s calling, as others have, but his heart of faith was shown his spiritual blindness with the taking of his sight, and so it is with us as we are awakened and our eyes are opened to the heart of God as He calls us into His peace.

Let us pray. I thank you, my heavenly Father, through Jesus Christ, your dear Son, that you have kept me this night from all harm and danger, and I ask you to protect me this day also from sin and every evil, that in all I do today, I may please you. For into your hands, I commend myself, my body and soul, and all that is mine. Let your holy angel watch over me, that the wicked foe have no power over me. Amen.