FRIDAY September 13, 2024

Rejoice With Me

...holding fast the word of life, so that I may rejoice in the day of Christ that I have not run in vain or labored in vain. Yes, and if I am being poured out as a drink offering on the sacrifice and service of your faith, I am glad and rejoice with you all. For the same reason you also be glad and rejoice with me.
Philippians 2:16-18

Paul wanted the Philippians to hold fast to the Word of God. He had labored among them sacrificially, teaching them from the Scriptures about Christ. Paul was a very tired person. The word labored means “to labor to the point of exhaustion.” He poured his life into them.

Paul spoke like an athlete running a race for a prize, because he knew his labor among the believers was not an empty ambition. He knew in the day of Christ, when he finished his race and entered heaven, he would be rejoicing. Why? His labor was not in vain. He had invested in their lives, and the Lord would reward him in eternity. In the book of 1 Corinthians, Paul gave a similar analogy:

Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but one receives the prize? Run in such a way that you may obtain it. And everyone who competes for the prize is temperate in all things. Now they do it to obtain a perishable crown, but we for an imperishable crown (1 Corinthians 9:24-25).

Sometimes, we tend to forget what will happen after we die. God is the one who keeps the records of our lives. At the Bema Seat of Christ, we shall all have to stand before Him to be judged. Paul tells us what our attitude should be in the light of our coming judgment:

Therefore we make it our aim, whether present or absent, to be well pleasing to Him. For we must all appear before the judgment seat of Christ, that each one may receive the things done in the body, according to what he has done, whether good or bad.

This is why Paul rejoiced with the Philippians. He knew that his labor was not in vain! May we rejoice together in the work of the Gospel!

Go through the day rejoicing for you are no desolate wanderer, but a beloved child, watched over, cared for, supplied, and defended by your Lord.
~C.H. Spurgeon~

For more from Raul Ries, please visit SomebodyLovesYou.com!