"I will most gladly spend and be spent for your souls. If I love you more, am I to be loved less?".
2 Cor 12:15

This is the verse that my mom shared last night with the ladies group. It is quite a challenging verse. Are we willing to spend? Are we willing to spend our time, our money, our spiritual knowledge to serve others?
The apostle Paul was willing to spend, he was spending his life for the Corinthians. For the furtherment of the gospel.

The NAS says:
"And I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls............
To be expended is to be consumed, compelled, taken over. Are we being consumed by Jesus? Are we consumed by a desire to serve Him with our everything?

"So, being affectionately desirous of you, we were ready to share with you not only the gospel of God but also our own selves, because you have become very dear to us". 1 Thess 2:8
Not only the gospel but our own selves........... Are you, am I, are we giving of our own selves? Is everything we are, everything we have, everything we need, want, think available to the cause of Christ?

"Now I rejoice in my sufferings for your sake, and in my flesh I am filling up what is lacking in Christ's afflictions for the sake of his body, that is, the church". Col 1:24

" I am speaking the truth in Christ- I am not lying; my conscience bears me witness in the Holy Spirit- that I have great sorrow and unceasing anguish in my heart. For I could wish that I myself were accursed and cut off from Christ for the sake of my brothers, my kindsmen according to the flesh". Romans 9:1-3
Paul was willing to give up his very salvation for those who were perishing...... He was willing to be seperated from God for all eternity for others..... I can't say that. Can you?

Last but not least returning to 2 cor it says, " I will MOST GLADLY"...................
Our sacrifice, our obedience is not complete if it is not done most gladly. God judges the heart. I do firmly believe that if we choose to be consumed, to obey, if we give over completely to His will, He will change our hearts. He will teach us to be joyful, to gladly do things that cost us, that spend our bodies and our minds.

So, friends, let's be spent. Let's come to an end of ourselves for our Jesus. Does He not deserve it?