24.What request did Paul desire that God would grant?

That he would have freedom of utterance to preach the Gospel while he was in his chains.

Every disciple of the Lord Jesus Christ must come to this place of abandonment to the will of Christ. It does not matter whether we live or die. For us to live is Christ and to die is gain.

The only matter of importance is that Christ is glorified in us, whether by our life or by our death.

To lose one’s self in the ocean of God’s Person and purpose is the greatest blessing any individual can receive. The believer who is concerned over his own comforts, his own desires, his own glory, is bound in a tiny knot of little accomplishment no matter how grand his position in the world may appear to be.

The believer who abandons himself to the will of God, who lays down his life for the Gospel’s sake, who sows the seed of his life into other people that they may receive Christ, multiplies himself to a degree incomprehensible to us at this time.

The Apostle Paul was one man. His education and personality were sufficient to bring him honor and wealth in Israel. He would have been a notable Jew of his day.

By casting his life into the hands of Christ, allowing Christ to sow him in the ground of the hearts of nations, Paul has moved the world.

Would you care to estimate how many people in the history of the world have been affected in one way or another by the Apostle Paul? Isn’t it incredible what can result from one life abandoned to Christ?