“But even if I am being poured out like a drink offering on the sacrifice and service coming from your faith, I am glad and rejoice with all of you.” Philippians 2:17
The Lord woke me up with this verse the other night. I’ve been thinking about it now for a couple of days and here are a couple of ideas.
Paul’s life was being poured out as a sacrifice for the Lord’s work. He gave up all that was important to him in order to serve God. (he speaks about this later in Philippians: his background, his religious heritage, his accomplishments – he says he counted all those things as “loss”) Instead of doing things that might bring earthly pleasure, his whole life was an offering for the Lord.
My life will be poured out regardless of what I choose to do. Time is fleeting. Life is a vapor. Weeks and years fly by – how did I get to be 53? What am I spending my life for? pursuits of happiness? eternal significance?
Choose wisely how you will spend your time. Don’t spend your life – invest it for eternity. Do things that will make a difference.
“Faith in God’s promises frees us to risk and to find in our own experiences that it is better to lose our life than to waste it. Therefore, it is right to risk for the cause of Christ. It is right to engage the enemy and say “May the Lord do what seems good to him.” (Joab in 2 Samuel 10) It is right to serve the people of God, and say, “If I perish, I perish!” (Esther 4) It is right to stand before the fiery furnace of affliction and refuse to bow down to the gods of this world. (Daniel 3) This is the road that leads to fullness of joy and pleasures forevermore. At the end of every other road – secure and risk-free – we will put our face in our hands and say, “I wasted it””
~ Don’t Waste Your Life by John Piper
“Only one life, ’twill soon be past, only what’s done for Christ will last.” ~ C.T.Studd
What are you pouring your life out for?
