11 I long to see you so that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to make you strong—
What do we get emotionally charged about to the point of action? What moves us to engage the world beyond ourselves? When was the last time you denied your own desires and did what was best for another person? For far too many of us, it has been far too long since we did that. What got Paul going in the morning was his desire to give to others. He gave himself wholeheartedly to the cause. He was consumed in the pursuit. Nothing stood in the way of fulfilling that giving. He gave what he had. God had given him what he did not want; he had the task of bringing the Good News to the very people he despised the most, the non-Jews. What is that cause to which you give yourself fully? Is it a cause worthy of Eternity? This kind of cause, an eternal one, is probably a cause that will force you to be totally dependent on the grace of God to accomplish. Are you willing to be vulnerable to the point of failure? Are you willing to let God give you a God-sized task so that you will have to depend on Him? Paul wanted the people in Rome to be spiritually strong. Nothing less than that would satisfy him. And he wanted to be part of that process. As a pastor, I want my congregation to grow in grace and in the knowledge of Him. I want them to become personal students of the Scriptures so that they can feed themselves and then be able to answer the questions of others. I want them to be strong. And this is not a natural process. It takes a spiritual gift for this to happen. This is a God thing. It must be God working in them that causes them to desire the things that He desires. It requires a change of heart. Are you ready for that change of heart?
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