Faithfulness Over Results

You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1538. Today's Devo is called Faithfulness Over Results. Hey there. We're the Alessi's, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Well, happy Wednesday, everybody. I hope you've been enjoying these devos. I'm your host, Gabby, for the week and we are continuing this study of Acts. Again, there is so much ground to cover. There's a lot of context that I'm not able to give in five or six minutes on this devo because we're trying to get through six chapters of the Book of Acts, the last six chapters, and I'm having to do it five, five minutes every single day. So I encourage you, please, please, please, please to go in and read the chapters after we talk about them. Today we're actually going to read two chapters. We're going to talk about the two, we're going to breeze over them. And I have a verse that I want us to look at, but the overall idea, we're going to kind of breeze over and look at the lesson that we could take, take away from this. But we want to talk about Paul's faithfulness in Acts 24 and 25. He is now having to stand before the governors, Felix and Festus. This is where things are really getting elongated. At the end of 24, it actually mentions how he meets with Felix and then Felix decides to kind of keep him in prison, but not sentence him to death or anything. Yet he actually gives Paul some free freedom. And it looks like Felix had a little bit of a heart for Paul. Just by what I was reading, it looked like he had some grace for him and some favor over Paul, where he gave Paul some freedom in prison, where he could kind of go around, talk to different people. The issue with that was he kept him in prison. Then two years passed, Paul was still in prison and Felix then was succeeded by Festus. And then Festus had a different plan for, for Paul. And both of these governors, as much as they might not have understood why Paul was in prison, they had a greater desire to please people and the people that they governed rather than protect Paul and do the right thing by Paul, you see, they were trying to please the crowds and please the people because the Jews wanted Paul dead. The governors were trying to keep them pleased. But also they, they noticed that there was really nothing that they saw for why Paul. There was no reason that they saw that Paul would, would die. And what we see here. I want to read this verse in Acts 24. It's 20, verse 25. Paul is spending time with Felix. This is the, the older governor, Governor one. If we're looking at the two of them. And even in his time in prison with Felix, when he has this, this basically this time to spend with this governor, he starts to talk and share about his story again. And verse 25 says this. As Paul talked about righteousness, self control and the judgment to come, Felix was afraid and said, that's enough for now, you may leave. When I find it convenient, I will send for you. What are we seeing here? That Paul in prison, when he could have just been resting and chilling or maybe stressing out. Paul was still faithful. He was still faithful to his assignment. What was his assignment? To preach the good news, to tell everybody about the kingdom to come. That's what he was saying here. He was talking about righteousness. He was talking about self control and the judgment to come. Paul looked at Felix, a governor, and was challenging him about where he stood with the Lord. He would have been. You would think, you would think as a prisoner you're too lowly or you're not good enough or the governor wasn't going to hear you out. But Paul still was faithful. Even in the midst of no results. We're looking at two years that Paul at least from 24 to 25, that would have been two years that Paul was in prison. We don't know how long Paul would have been in prison. I mean, somebody knows, but I don't have the number. Right now we're looking at at least two years that Paul saw no results, that Paul did not hear any word about being free. He didn't hear anything about getting out of prison. He didn't hear anything about anything that was changing. There was none of that. He was just in prison. He had to wait it out. He had to see this guy Felix that would choose pleasing man over doing what's right by Paul. He had to sit there and do that. What did he do? He was faithful. He still shared the gospel with Felix to the point where Felix said, I'm done, get out of here. When I want to talk to you, I will call for you, man. That is faithfulness right there. You see, you're called to be faithful. We're not Called to results. That's not why God has called us. We're not just called to walk and live in a life that's fully a result driven life. That's not what's going to happen. It's not how it's supposed to be. But we're called to be faithful. You see in yesterday's verse, that's what God was calling Paul to do. The Lord met him in prison and said, I need you to do what you've done here. You still got work to do. You got to do more. In Rome. That was Paul's calling. He was called to be faithful. He spoke boldly over the people, but the outcomes aren't and weren't immediate. He remained in prison, but he doesn't compromise. You see, we often want quick results. We want to do something that when it happens or when we do it, we put the work in, it happens immediately. We want to lose the five pounds one day to the next. I am with you. But see, God's timeline is different. And faithfulness, here's the main point. Faithfulness is never wasted. It's never wasted even when it feels unseen, even when you're faithful, when no one's watching, even when you do the hard thing, when no one's around to see it. It's never wasted. So ask yourself this, Are you discouraged right now because things aren't changing quickly? Are you discouraged? It's fine if you are. It's okay. You just got to talk about it. Are you discouraged right now because things aren't changing quickly? And lastly, are you more focused on results rather than obedience? This is a hard one because I'm with you here. This is for all of us. And I just believe and I pray over today that the Lord will start to reveal to you maybe where you feel discouraged or maybe where we might be living a result driven life. Let's pray. Father, we just thank you. We thank you because your spirit enables us to be faithful. God, it's a fruit of the Spirit. And in times when we want to see the result, we want to see the good thing, we want to see the payback. God, we still have to put our head down and stick to the course and stay faithful. So I just pray that your spirit would show us maybe where there's some discouragement, maybe where we are more results driven. And God, that you would help us stay faithful and just bring the right people around us, Lord, that help us in the faithful seasons. We thank you for it all. In Jesus name, Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. 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