Helping God’s Chosen Ones

My wife and I were once involved in helping two Jewish women who had escaped from Soviet Russia. In a sense, these women had cast themselves on our mercy. We went to a lot of pain and trouble to help them, and, by the grace of God, we ultimately succeeded in doing so. One day, I was complaining to myself as I toiled up a steep hill in Haifa for them. It was a hot day, and, though these women were always very grateful, I was thinking that this was an awful lot to go through for them. And God gave me this verse; I did not know where to find it in the Bible, but the words just came to me:

“Therefore I endure all things for the sake of the elect [God’s chosen ones], that they also may obtain the salvation which is in Christ Jesus with eternal glory.” (2 Timothy 2:10)

From that experience, I saw that my position was far from that of Jesus on the cross. The inconvenience I was enduring was so miniscule in comparison. But the purpose was to help God’s chosen ones enter into salvation with eternal glory.

We all need to devote more time to thinking about that word glory, because it is our destination. If there is a price to pay for glory, believe me, it is worth it. We may be called upon sometime to give up those two idols of convenience and comfort. If we could just get a vision of all that can come out of our personal inconvenience and sacrifice, we would one day see people in glory who are there because of what we did.

That was the motivation of Jesus. He did not do it for Himself but to bring many sons to glory.