Friday 26 May 2023

Psalm 51

Background

Paul is determined to reach Jerusalem in time to mark the Passover (Acts 20:16). We sense that this journey is significant for Paul and that he knew his ministry is drawing to its conclusion.

So, on reaching Miletus – the ruins of which can still be found today in Western Turkey – he sent a message asking  the Ephesian elders to join him. He had a farewell message to share. When the overseers arrived, Paul reflected with them on the trials and the tears of service, but he also recalled the privilege of proclaiming the message of Jesus "From house to house, as I testified to both Jews and Greeks about repentance toward God and faith toward our Lord Jesus." (vs 20-21) (No-one was excluded from the offer of the good news.)

Just as Jesus set his face towards Jerusalem, knowing that troubles awaited him there, now Paul travelled to Jerusalem, knowing ‘that imprisonments and persecutions’ were waiting (v. 23) for him also. These seemed of no consequence to him. His only desire was to travel ‘as a captive to the Spirit’ (‘compelled by the Spirit’ in the NIV) until he had finished the work God had given him to do.

Into my mind comes a frail, very elderly lady with whom I spent some sacred moments at the close of her life on earth. I went to bless her and pray with her, but as is so often the case in pastoral ministry, it was the other way around. “I’ve finished” she whispered, “God told me I could come home now. So that’s what I am going to do." And she did. Just hours later. How God told her, I do not know. And I am fully aware that not every earthly life ends in such timely peacefulness, but what a blessing to approach the end of life, the end of ministry, the end of a chapter in service, and know deep inside that the work is finished, the race is run, and the task assigned by God has been completed.

To Ponder:

• Look backwards over the road you have travelled and pause over some blessings and some troubles. Turn those pauses into prayers as you reflect how God has guided you.
•  When have you known yourself ‘compelled by the Spirit’?  How did you discern what God was prompting you to do, or where to go or what to say? Was this a straightforward or challenging experience for you?

Prayer

Spirit of God, nudge me into your plans and purposes today, that I may go where you ask me to go, do what you ask me to do and say what you ask me to say – and if I don’t respond to your prompt, please nudge a little harder. I want to live in your will. Amen.