Romans 15:20 speaks of a holy ambition that drove Paul to take the gospel around the world. In this verse, he says, “I strived to preach the gospel, not where Christ was named, lest I should build upon another man’s foundation.” This was a goal for his life: to find the places that didn’t know about Jesus and tell them about Him. It was almost as if he would arrive in a town and if he found other believers there, he would fellowship for a while and then would continue down the road to find a place that didn’t have any believers.
How does that compare to our modern demeanor about sharing the gospel? Whether missions or evangelism, we don’t have to do it as a crowd. If we are going to evangelize, we don’t need a mob to go do it. In missions, we don’t need to have a missionary already there for us to go work with and so that we can learn missions from him. We need young people with ambition to go where there is no gospel.
Paul said, “I don’t want to go where the other guys are.” Do you realize how quickly the gospel would spread if Christians got past our timid, hide-behind others presentation of the gospel. Perhaps we lack boldness when meeting new people, or we timidly back out of conversations that would end with the gospel because we are unsure and almost afraid to share the good news. May we, like Paul, have the boldness to take the gospel whether that means we have a crowd going with us, or that we will be marching out alone to places no one has ever gone before. Remember, that no matter where you are, alone or in the middle of the crowd, He is there as your strength.
Food for Thought: Read Romans 15:18-33. What was Paul’s “holy ambition”? What did this ambition make him do?
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