This was how he grew in spiritual
strength and nobleness!
(Alexander Smellie, "The Hour of Silence" 1899)
or vain conceit, but in humility consider
others better than yourselves. Each of you
should look not only to your own interests,
but also to the interests of others!"
Philippians 2:3-4
Did Paul live a depressed and
dismayed life, because he was
perpetually denying himself out
of love for others? Not at all.
The very reverse is true. This
was how he grew in spiritual
strength and nobleness!
The discipline prospered his own soul.
It gave him wisdom and insight.
It gave him courage and endurance.
It gave him sympathy and considerateness.
It gave him deep restfulness and glowing joy.
By it he gained inward vigor,
and the glow of spiritual health,
and spiritual life in its fire and
force and fullness.
And this was how he won the hearts
of men and women. They saw that
his was a yearning tenderness for them,
which made him unconcerned for his own
comforts. And so others were conquered,
and melted, and led willing prisoners
to the LORD JESUS. HE drew them
by the magnetism of his love for them--
and they followed on.
And this was how he learned
the secret of fellowship with
JESUS.
HIMSELF" Romans 15:3.
The servant Paul came very
close to the MASTER, and
the MASTER to the servant,
just as the servant took up his
cross and gloried in it as he carried
it in his arms. His little lamp was
lighted from the flame around
the SAVIOR'S sacrifice.
So Paul lived in a noble place,
because he looked perpetually
not on his own interests--
but on the interests of others.
Let me master this truth.
I shall never regret the surrender
and sacrifice of my desires and
interests. It is for my own good,
as well as my LORD'S wish and will.
~ ~ ~ ~ ~
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