1st Nov 2010

Acts 20:1-7 – Through Macedonia and Greece

• “How the promise works”
• Ok so a devotional blog only very very loosely tied to the passage, not often I do that but here’s what came to me.
• It’s my birthday today.
• And so I’ve been reflecting on a wonderful life so far and when I read the word ‘Greece’ it immediately sent me back quite a few years to a great week in my life but I tried to focus back to the passage and away from my memories.
• When I read ‘sail’ I got took straight back again and this time I stayed in my memories. But for good reason.
• Jesus made me a promise.
• Seek first the Kingdom of God and everything you need will be given to you – Matthew 6:33
• I’ve tried my best.
• I’ve found out that He was only speaking in half-truths.
• I have not just been given my needs but many of my desires as well.
• Paul is sailing around Greece.
• I can totally picture it!
• Why?
• Because it was one of my dreams and a few years ago I got a call from a minister who had been given a 60ft schooner. It was given to him to use as a training/retreat centre and he had it sailed and registered in Athens. He then decided that rather than advertise it in magazines, he would instead invite 20 ‘well connected’ people to try it out. I was one of them.
• He paid for my flight, food and one weeks sailing around Greece!
• I loved it! Lynn and I were on a very low income but here I was feeling like a millionaire.
• As I think of how the promise has been fulfilled what comes to me is this:
• God does not often give us the money to buy stuff but He gives us the stuff people need money to buy.
• I’m about to write a new chapter in my next book ‘The Cloud and the Line’, it is the chapter on Seek First – His Promise. I will be listing all the ways this has happened.
• It’s a promise for all of us. God may not make me rich but He will give me the security rich people hope to buy. He may not give me the fast car but he’ll give me the thrills that people buy fast cars for. He may not give me the ability to buy things that impress others but he’ll give me great friends that are genuine.
• etc.
• That’s how the promise works.
• Praying today that I seek first the Kingdom of God for another… 21 years J