Daily Devotions
February 4th, 2015 by Pastor SolleyEph 3:1 For this cause I Paul, the prisoner of Jesus Christ for you Gentiles,
Eph 4:1 I therefore, the prisoner of the Lord, beseech you that ye walk worthy of the vocation wherewith ye are called,
2 Tim 1:8 Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God;
Philem 1 Paul, a prisoner of Jesus Christ, and Timothy our brother, unto Philemon our dearly beloved, and fellowlabourer,
Philem 9 Yet for love’s sake I rather beseech thee, being such an one as Paul the aged, and now also a prisoner of Jesus Christ.
The word prisoner is used 13 times in the Bible and in 5 of those Paul uses it in reference to himself. Five in the Bible is the number of both death and grace and should be remembered as we consider a few thing about being a prisoner for the Lord. At that time when an individual became a prisoner to Rome, I think of the great Roman rowing ships, they were bound with a chain that was never broken, they were never unshackled. It were as if they had died to anyone who had ever known them and they were bound to their station for the rest of their lives. It is something a Christian should take time to consider after they repent and come to Christ for salvation. We then are made alive unto Christ. (Rom 6:11 Likewise reckon ye also yourselves to be dead indeed unto sin, but alive unto God through Jesus Christ our Lord.) But what or who did we become dead to? Dead to sin we can clearly see, but dead to other things as well. We need be dead unto self. (Gal 2:20 I am crucified with Christ: nevertheless I live; yet not I, but Christ liveth in me: and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me.) No longer alive unto self, now alive unto Jesus Christ. That does mean that we must die to self. Before you say you want to be a prisoner of the Lord think of what that does involve. Understand that is the will of God, that will be what is best for us, it is what God wants and what we need, but there will be a cost, there needs to be a death. To be a prisoner one must first die, die unto self.