30-Day Personal Devotion Challenge Day 28

Good Morning Church Family – Day 28

Read Colossians 4:10-11

Devo Thought: Yesterday, we talked about some of the specific people Paul mentioned who had impacted him and the church at Colossae. Today, we continue to see these names (Aristarchus, Mark, and Jesus called Justus). These men are mentioned because they comforted Paul. They provided comfort to Paul by simply helping him not feel alone. Aristarchus was a fellow prisoner with Paul, and Mark and Justus were friends of Paul. More than that, they were fellow Jews who had placed their faith in Jesus. Have you ever felt really alone? Have you ever had that feeling like you are the only one? There is something about that feels so weird, so alienating. Think about the word alienating. It comes from the root word alien, which means different and strange, foreign. I remember the first time Julie and I traveled out of the country. We were on our honeymoon and had traveled down to a region of Mexico. As a part of our travel, we flew into Mexico City and had to navigate that huge international airport. As soon as we got off the plane and enter the terminal, we quickly realized that we were in a different place. No one spoke English (we couldn’t them if they did), none of the announcements were in English, and none of the signs were in English. My three years of high school Spanish were no match for this task. We were alone and felt it. I can’t tell you how comforting it would have been to have someone else there with us that shared our language, our culture, our experiences. This is what Aristarchus, Mark, and Justus had done for Paul. Maybe that’s what you can do for someone else; maybe you need someone to come alongside you and do that for you. People matter. Calling matters. Maybe your calling is to help someone who feels alone.

Prayer – Let us ask God to show us people who feel alone so that we can serve and love them.