"Now I am really living, since you are standing firm in the Lord" (1 Thessalonians 3:8)(Williams)
This is the utterance of profound and overpowering emotion. Paul's whole spiritual joy is linked with the experience of victory in this Thessalonian Church. Paul was not exaggerating. He meant that his life took on new color, new strength, and new vibrancy when he knew that his converts were established. This is Bunyan's "Mr. Great-Heart".
"Consider for a moment the background of this statement. How interested and how concerned would we be if we had been in Paul's position? Paul had been there just a few weeks and had led these few souls to Christ, but now it seems that his very life depended upon the success and the prosperity of this church. His whole heart was wrapped up in the spiritual prosperity of these, his children in the faith.
What a challenge this should be to us that we may have that same sensitivity of the soul, that we may have that passion, that love which was in the heart of Christ Himself for the sheep, for the people of God. In the Bible, the men of God, men who really served God, had a heart for the needs of souls. Too often in our modern life our theology is in one compartment and our heart is in another. We believe that souls are lost without Christ and recognize human suffering and human need, but it is never translated into prayer, or into helpfulness, or into doing what we can to meet the needs of others. What a contrast to Paul!" (Walvoord).
Lord, help me to live from day to day
In such a self-forgetful way
That even when I kneel to pray
My prayers will be for others.
--C. C. Meigs
(this devotional by Dr. James B. Crichton)