READING: Acts 20:13-21:36
There is so much emotion in today’s reading that it’s almost hard to read. Paul knew as he left the Ephesian elders that he would never again see those believers. He knew he had been faithful to the gospel task among them, but he also knew that false teachers would threaten to undermine his work—so he challenged the leaders to shepherd that church well. More specifically, Paul sensed that persecution awaited him in his further travels.
That potential persecution apparently did not alarm him, however. All he wanted to do was to finish his course well, even if doing so cost him his life. He knelt and prayed with the believers, who wept with him, “grieving most of all over his statement that they would never see his face again” (Acts 20:38). As Paul would later say, though, he was ready to die for the name of the Lord Jesus.
Such grief among the believers. So great, in fact, that Paul and his company had to tear themselves away from them. Such love for, and from, the brothers and sisters.
Such faith in Paul. Such eternal perspective. Such a witness for us today.
PERSONAL REFLECTION: Do you have Paul’s kind of faith?
DAILY PRAYER: “God, grant me faith with an eternal perspective today.”
TOMORROW’S READING: Acts 21:37-23:35
