“While Apollos was in Corinth, Paul travelled through the interior regions until he reached Ephesus, on the coast, where he found several believers. ‘Did you receive the Holy Spirit when you believed?’ he asked them. ‘No,’ they replied, ‘we haven’t even heard that there is a Holy Spirit’ (Acts 19:1-2)

A focal point of these verses for inspiration today is the attitude of Paul and manner of his journey and specifically the path that he took towards the great city of Ephesus. This was his third missionary journey. “Paul travelled through the interior regions” until he arrived at Ephesus. The interior regions are the undeveloped regions and very often the mountainous unhabitable regions.

These are difficult terrains, and they are places which are usually unreached and not the frequent gaze of many. Yet Paul travelled through them, and it is certain that as he journeyed, he brought God’s word into those regions too. The distance between Corinth and Ephesus is about 570km, but walking through these mountains, it was a whole lot more. Yet, for Paul, everyone counts, just as it was (and still is) with Jesus!

Mark 1:38-39 recounts Jesus saying to His disciples: “Let’s go to the rest of the villages so I can preach there also. This is why I’ve come.” He went to their meeting places all through Galilee, preaching and throwing out the demons.” Persistence mixed with compassion can yield great fruits in whatever we do. There’s a lot of difference we can bring to many lives and our societies if we patiently walk in them just as Jesus and Paul did. May the empowering grace of God be mighty upon us today. Amen.

BeEncouraged❤️ Freely Received. Freely Share