Click here to go to the Scripture: 2 Corinthians 1:3-11

At the moment our family is watching a Bible series on Sunday nights called The Bible. It’s a series of movies about the Bible. It reminds one of the reality of the events in the Bible and helps you to visualise the people as real persons who have lived.

In the last episode we met Paul ­– obviously not the converted Paul. We are first introduced to Saul who has a passion to kill Christians. Paul did a good job of it. His bloodthirstiness went before him and the Christians were very afraid of him. The visual portrayal of his bloody deeds was not a pretty picture and at times I had to close my eyes.

But then he meets Jesus on the road to Damascus. It is wonderful to see the bloodthirsty lion change into a lamb. His meeting with the Christ of the Christians opened his eyes, even though he was blind for three days. Suddenly he realised what the Christians were going on about and fell on his knees to worship Christ.

Although Paul was converted, he didn’t change at all as a person. He still had the same passion. But the focus of his passion changed. Instead of looking for Christians to kill, he looked for people who could become Christians so that they could discover true life. Wow, isn’t it amazing! When we first met Paul, he was someone finding Christians to take their lives from them. After he saw the Lord his life changed so much that he started looking for people to tell them about true life.

That is what Jesus does. That is what true Christians do. It changes your focus. 12Now that the worst is over, we’re pleased we can report that we’ve come out of this with conscience and faith intact, and can face the world—and even more importantly, face you with our heads held high. But it wasn’t by any fancy footwork on our part. It was God who kept us focused on him, uncompromised. 13Don’t try to read between the lines or look for hidden meanings in this letter. We’re writing plain, unembellished truth, hoping that you’ll now see the whole picture as well as you’ve seen some of the details. 14We want you to be as proud of us as we are of you when we stand together before our Master Jesus.

Maybe Paul sounds a little arrogant here. But it is not so. Paul lives with passion. He does everything with passion. He knows that for the first time in his life he is going in the right direction. He knows he is doing precisely what God has planned for him. He thought he was doing the will of God before, but when he met God, his eyes really opened for the first time. And even though he had made such a mess, he knows that Jesus has paid his debt. Now he has no choice but to tell other people about it as well. And he knows for certain that the Lord is going to be very proud of him.

We must learn from Paul. We must learn that we shouldn’t drag the baggage of what has happened in the past with us every day. We must know about Jesus’ forgiveness and learn from it. We must see Jesus through our own blindness and realise that He is the only One who can save us from this world. And then, like Paul, we must take all that energy and passion and tell everyone we meet about the great Saviour.

Then we will be doing what God expects of each of us. Then we will be living within God’s will for our lives. Then our fellow Christians will be proud of us. Then God will also be proud of us.

Let’s go and live it and make a difference in life.

Reflection

What does your passion for God look like?

Do you make a difference in other people’s lives?

Will God be proud of you one day?

Prayer

Father, I realise my passion is not always in the right place. Too much of my energy is wasted on the wrong things. Please help me, Lord, to burn to tell others about You, like Paul did. Please give me a heart that will cry when people go off the road. Please give me a willing mouth to tell others where to find salvation. Amen