Paul was only with them for a season. Acts 20
What a blessing it must have been to sit under the ministry of Paul and to witness the miracles the Holy Spirit did through him; the raising of Eutychus after he fell from the third story window.
‘Paul sent to Ephesus for the elders of the church. …you know how I lived the whole time I was with you. I served the Lord( Paul was serving the Lord, not seeking for himself) with great humility( again the mark of a true servant’s heart) and with tears, although I was severely tested by the plots of the Jews’. Paul’s ministry bore much fruit and it was carried on in a continuous atmosphere of tears and testing! He also had an issue that he asked the Lord to remove three times, but was told that the Lord’s strength was made perfect in weakness.
‘Compelled by the Spirit, I’m going to Jerusalem…I only know the Holy Spirit warns me that prison and hardships are facing me. However, I consider my life worth nothing to me, if only I may finish the race and complete the task the Lord Jesus has given me(Paul’s goal was finish his race before going to his Lord, eternal viewpoint to his life)’. The trials ahead weren’t changing Paul’s direction, he wanted to finish the race, cross the winning line. Everything in Him was striving towards that goal, no matter what the obstacles.
‘Now I know that none of you among whom I have gone about preaching the kingdom will ever see me again(this was a final goodbye to people who loved him). …remember that for three years I never stopped warning each of you day and night with tears’. Paul was with the Ephesians believers for a period of time, three years and then he had to leave. He’d poured his life into them and greatly blessed them but they wouldn’t have him with them again. They had their own race to run. ‘Keep watch over yourselves(first priority) and the flock of which the Holy Spirit has made you overseers. Be shepherds of the church of God, which He bought with His own blood’.
Trials and tests produce lasting fruit! We may only be able to drink from a servant of the Lord for a time, so make the best of it while it’s available to us.
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God bless you and keep you.