Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “A life of service”
Our Bible verse for today: “Therefore, King Agrippa, I was not disobedient to the heavenly vision.” Acts 26:19 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “You will either live out of your vision or you will live out of your circumstances.”
The Apostle Paul had a vision for his life. It was given to him by the Lord Jesus Christ on the road to Damascus at the time of his conversion. You can read about it in Acts chapter nine. Paul knew that from that point forward his life was to be one of service to the Lord and to others. That vision then became the driving force of Paul’s life.
As we follow his story through the book of Acts, and then through his letters as they appear in the New Testament, we discover that Paul’s circumstances were often extremely difficult, but he never let his circumstances deter him from pursuing his vision. Paul lived life out of his vision, not out of his circumstances. That’s what we’re reading about in Acts 26:19. Paul was on trial before King Agrippa and he was in the process of explaining to Agrippa why he (Paul) had lived the life he had lived and why he had engaged in the acts of ministry he did. It was because of his vision.
Personally I can relate to Paul’s story. While I’m certainly no Apostle Paul, and my life has been nothing like his, I did receive a vision from the Lord almost immediately after my conversion. It was an understanding that the rest of my life was to be spent in some sort of professional Christian ministry. At that time I didn’t know what form that ministry would take, but I did know I was destined to spend the rest of my life in service to the Lord and to others and that it would be my profession. My wife Linda confirmed her belief in that vision and has lived it with me ever since. It has been that shared vision that has kept us on-track and in-service despite many, many difficult circumstances.
God wants you to have a vision for your life too. It will be a vision that is centered in serving Him and in serving others. Once you have that vision, it will become the focal point of your life and from that point on you will find yourself empowered to live based upon your vision, not on your circumstances.
God may not be calling you into ministry as a profession, but He is calling you into a life of service to Him and to others. Your vision of what God wants your life to be will probably be different from the vision God gave to Paul, and different from the one He gave to me.
I know a fine Christian woman whose vision for life includes being a godly grandmother. She talks to her many grandchildren about the Lord, she prays with them, she reads Bible stories to them, she teaches their Sunday school class, and she sets a good example for them by the way she lives her life. She has many challenges she has to face in her life. But as she deals with the difficulties she remains very conscious of the example she is setting for her grandchildren as she does so. She is living life based on her vision not on her circumstances.
You can too. Ask God for a vision of what He wants your life to be. Then pursue that vision with passion and determination. Let the vision be the thing that motivates you and keeps you on track. Live out of your vision, not out of your circumstances.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 