“I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls.”
– 2 Corinthians 12:15
What a simple statement here in 2 Corinthians 12:15 that reflects a somber commitment to say to other people, “I will gladly, most gladly, spend my life for your soul”. Be spent like, “God use my life however you want for the good of these other souls”. What a picture of commitment to say, “My life is not ultimately about me. I am living for the glory of God and specifically for the glory of God and others I want to spend my life for the good of others, for the eternal good of others. I want my life to be spent by God for that purpose.”
Are you spending your life for the good of the souls of others? God, give us a desire to spend our lives for the good of others like 2 Corinthians 12:15 describes.
I just ask you today is that your posture? When you think about the people around you in your sphere of influence are you spending your life for the good of their souls? I think if we’re not careful we can get so caught up in the busyness of life and just getting all the things done that we need to get done that we don’t take time to stop and say, “How can I spend my life today for the good of souls around me?”
God spend me, make my life spent today for the good of souls around me. Oh God please teach us to live like this. God give us we pray yes ultimately a focus on you but then flowing from this a desire to spend our lives for other’s good. God please help us to spend our lives for the good of people in our families, for the good of people in our churches. Help us to spend our lives for the good of those who are without Christ all around us. God please help us to spend our lives for their eternal good.
God please spend our lives for the good of people far from us.
Lord God, we pray for the Fur people in Sudan, in Darfur. God, over a million of them, no followers of Jesus. God cause somebody to spend their life for their souls. Raise up laborers who will go and spend their lives for their souls. Please oh God raise up missionaries who will go there. Raise up Christians nearby in Sudan, South Sudan. Please cause somebody, some people to spend their lives for the Fur in Sudan.
And God show us if you’re leading us to do that and cause us to do that. Not just in the future among a remote people group but cause us to do that today. God we pray that you would transform our perspective on our lives today that we might gladly, not begrudgingly, not because we have to, because we want to, because we love others and ultimately we love you. Help us to be gladly spent today for the good of souls around us. In Jesus name we pray. Amen.
David Platt serves as a pastor in metro Washington, D.C. He is the founder of Radical.
David received his Ph.D. from New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary and is the author of Don’t Hold Back, Radical, Follow Me, Counter Culture, Something Needs to Change, Before You Vote, as well as the multiple volumes of the Christ-Centered Exposition Commentary series.
Along with his wife and children, he lives in the Washington, D.C. metro area.
