Our Daily Journey

Acts 14:19–28

“Then some Jews came from Antioch and Iconium and won the crowd over. They stoned Paul and dragged him outside the city, thinking he was dead. But after the disciples had gathered around him, he got up and went back into the city. The next day he and Barnabas left for Derbe. They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. “We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God,” they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord, in whom they had put their trust. After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Attalia. From Attalia they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles. And they stayed there a long time with the disciples.”

In his second letter to the Corinthians, the Apostle Paul recounted his journeys, exactly what is recorded by the Apostle Luke in todays verses, “Are they servants of Christ? I am speaking like I am out of my mind, but I am so much more: in harder labor, in more imprisonments, in worse beatings, in frequent danger of death. Five times I received from the Jews the forty lashes minus one. Three times I was beaten with rods, once I was stoned, three times I was shipwrecked. I spent a night and a day in the open sea. In my frequent journeys, I have been in danger from rivers and from bandits, in danger from my countrymen and from the Gentiles, in danger in the city and in the country, in danger on the sea and among false brothers, in labor and toil and often without sleep, in hunger and thirst and often without food, in cold and exposure. Apart from these external trials, I face daily the pressure of my concern for all the churches (II Cor 11:23–28).” But with all these, St. Paul and his companions, St. Barnabas, St. Mark and the others, heed what the Apostle James tells us as well, “consider it pure joy, my brothers, when you encounter trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Allow perseverance to finish its work, so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything (Jam 1:2-4).” Faith in Christ allows me to honour the struggle knowing that it is what’s required for growth especially in knowing the LORD Jesus and making Him known. St. Paul elsewhere maintains that all these that they experienced are nothing compared to the promise we have in Christ: “Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal (II Cor 5:16-18).” We face struggles in our own lives, our own journeys, in daily living, of living out consistently what we believe, of seeking first God’s Kingdom and His righteousness (Matt 6:33) against the backdrop of an indulgent, busy, distracted, covetous, and apathetic world; and there is another set of challenges in sharing the Gospel where we have been placed in it, we have to endure and persevere in both for the glory of God. Today, let us pray with Living Life, “Jesus, grant me the grace to endure the trials I may face on account of Your name. Use them to shape me so that I may resemble You more each day. May any suffering I experience make me humbler, more compassionate, and more zealous for Your Gospel than ever before. In Your name. Amen.”