LifeLink Devotions for Wednesday, August 14, 2024

Let’s continue our conversation about the joy of intimacy. It’s based on the Apostle Paul’s statement in Philippians chapter 2 about his own relationship with his apprentice Timothy. Yesterday I shared the first challenge of our human relationships reflecting the intimacy we have with Jesus. Here are the other two challenges.

2.      Am I being a Timothy by sacrificing anything and everything for the sake of God’s work? I struggle here because of the seeming conflict between the blessing of God with sufficiency and the desire to give it all up to see people saved and the church flourish. I hope that my heart is visible and that you can see the willingness to give anything for the cause of Christ. I also pray that the willingness to sacrifice for the work of Jesus will permeate every aspect of your personal life as well. When we are filled with the joy of our salvation, there is nothing more important to us than to share the good news of salvation with others no matter the cost.

3.      Am I being a Timothy by being open and approachable at the level of intimacy that people need for their spiritual growth and development? I hope people can see that there is nothing more important to me than being able to listen to what God is doing in their life and to connect with their heart on a spiritual level of intimacy. I also hope you know that you have the incredible privilege of giving that gift of intimacy to each other.

These three challenges from yesterday and today are emphasized by Paul in the rest of Philippians 2, where he tells the story of Epaphroditus, another of Paul’s intimate joy producers. Read the rest of the story below. It is obvious from the story that the church at Philippi understood intimacy because of their relationship with Epaphroditus, and that intimacy brought them great joy. There was genuine concern from both sides of the relationship. This was a shared intimacy, not a one-way giving and taking. The people of the church had sent him out as their representative because of the love they had for Paul, and  Epaphroditus was a sacrificing servant of Jesus Christ who was willing to die for the cause of Christ and the love of Christ’s people. He went beyond the call of the average and became a man worthy of our honor.

My friends, I want my legacy to be that I went beyond the call of the average and genuinely loved others. I want your legacy to be the same. It is in that kind of intimacy that true joy is experienced and expressed.

Pastor John

Philippians 2:25-30 “But I think it is necessary to send back to you Epaphroditus, my brother, fellow worker and fellow soldier, who is also your messenger, whom you sent to take care of my needs. For he longs for all of you and is distressed because you heard he was ill. Indeed he was ill, and almost died. But God had mercy on him, and not on him only but also on me, to spare me sorrow upon sorrow. Therefore I am all the more eager to send him, so that when you see him again you may be glad and I may have less anxiety. Welcome him in the Lord with great joy, and honor men like him, because he almost died for the work of Christ, risking his life to make up for the help you could not give me.”