I SHALL NOT BE MOVED
Acts 20:22-24 And now, behold, I go bound in the spirit unto Jerusalem, not knowing the things that shall befall me there:
[23] Save that the Holy Ghost witnesseth in every city, saying that bonds and afflictions abide me. [24] But none of these things move me, neither count I my life dear unto myself, so that I might finish my course with joy, and the ministry, which I have received of the Lord Jesus, to testify the gospel of the grace of God.
Philippians 4:13 I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.
The apostle Paul was highly experienced in the field of depending upon the Lord! When you read of His testimony and what He had endured you get a glimpse of the miracle of God’s working power in His life. He was beaten time and time again, imprisoned, shipwrecked, and a night and a day he spent in the deep. He went hungry, was often in danger of robbers and false brethren, was exposed to the cold and we know he had a thorn in the flesh to live with. On top of all of this, Paul had the daily pressure of overseeing God’s people and the churches the Lord had placed under His care. Our brother Paul knew what it meant to be utterly dependent upon the strength and intervening presence of God in His life. When Paul tells the church at Philippi that “he can do all things through Christ” he was speaking from firsthand experience. This was not a statement made out of faith alone but life experience. Paul had been through the fiery furnace with the Lord and a testimony was born; a testimony of the sustaining and enabling power of Jesus Christ. Once Paul learned how to trust the Lord in all things, once he knew where his power came from, he wanted for nothing else. Hallelujah!
Trials will sow the seed of endurance in our lives and when it has yielded it’s precious fruit, endurance will teach us what nothing else can; dependency, dependency upon God and none other because we have tried HIM as silver in the furnace of life and HE has come forth valiant and worthy! Having endurance as our teacher, we are able to proclaim without hesitation to a world in need, “I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” There is no need to fear or dread anything or anyone because Christ removes every limitation, every obstacle, all confusion and doubt, lifts our anxieties, removes every encumbrance. Through HIM you are empowered and the enemy is rendered powerless. Through Jesus we have no more excuses!
Are you at a difficult place in your life today? Maybe you’ve been given a task that you feel completely unworthy of and absolutely inadequate to undertake? Are you facing a situation in your life that you do not have the strength, courage, or means to handle, and things are just uncertain? Do you need courage this hour like you have never known before? Is facing tomorrow fearful or uncertain for you because you don’t know what you are going to do or how you are going to make it through? Christian friend, Brother Paul left us a wonderful testimony that we see here in our text. Please read our text carefully, In Acts 20 Paul knew NOT what tomorrow was going to bring. What he did know was that the Holy Ghost had been with him in every city, in his preaching and in every door opened to him. In all the hardness and in every trial Brother Paul had made up his mind. He was NOT going to be moved by the things of this world or by his circumstances. Paul lost himself and all his desires IN CHRIST. He became nothing and unimportant so that Christ would be exalted and become EVERYTHING! The Lord had given Paul a ministry, a calling, a job to do…and he was going to finish his course with great joy.
Dear friend, you are not alone. You have all you need in Jesus! It’s not with HIM, beside HIM, behind HIM, or before HIM but THROUGH HIM that we overwhelmingly conquer! HE is in it with you, and HE is able. Sometimes we just need to hear the words, “YOU ARE GOING TO MAKE IT”! Praise Him today, and choose to face this day and tomorrow through HIM!
Bro. Lawrence Longworth Isaiah 61:1 “the opening of the prison to them that are bound;”
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