God’s Desire for Me
Scripture Reading — Romans 1:14-17
I am so eager to preach the gospel also to you who are in Rome. . . . It is the power of God that brings salvation.
In my experience as a pastor, I would not describe preaching as either easy or simply fun. But it can be incredibly meaningful when you sense that something in your message of God’s love connects with your listeners. So I can appreciate that Paul is eager to preach the gospel to the people he cares about in Rome.
Paul is eager not because he thinks he’s so good at what he does or because he would like to headline a few performances in the empire’s capital. The reason for his eagerness comes from the fact that the gospel is the power of God. And it is power for a specific purpose.
The gospel is not power to get a new bill of health, or to gain the friend or spouse you desire. It’s not power for financial success or fault-free parenting. It’s not power to get to heaven when you die. It’s power for salvation. And salvation has to do with getting where we need to be in our relationship with God.
Paul’s eagerness in all this is a reflection of God’s desire. God wants me to belong to him as fully as I can in the life I am now living. That’s the point of the gospel, and that is its power. The challenge for me is to have the same eagerness for God that God has for me.
Dear God, sometimes we see your power mostly as a means to our ends. Help us not to use it for us but to seek you, and to know your desire that we find you. In Christ, Amen.
About the author — Henry Kranenburg
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