Remain Where God Places You

Acts 15:37-40
37 Now Barnabas was determined to take with them John called Mark.
38 But Paul insisted that they should not take with them the one who had departed from them in Pamphylia, and had not gone with them to the work.
39 Then the contention became so sharp that they parted from one another. And so Barnabas took Mark and sailed to Cyprus;
40 but Paul chose Silas and departed, being commended by the brethren to the grace of God.

In the above set of scriptures, you sadly have an event that takes place all too often in the body of Christ. Paul and Barnabas whom God had called to work together to fulfill God’s purpose in preaching the gospel were preparing to go back to the churches they had already been to so they could check on them and see how they were doing. John Mark on that first journey at one point had left them and gone back to Jerusalem. It was dangerous work, and he had not stayed with them.

As they are preparing to go again, Barnabas wants to take John back with them, but Paul who had become the leader of the team did not want him to go. Good leadership is not going to allow someone who is not prepared to risk the mission that needs to be fulfilled, knowing also they may be affected. But Barnabas was determined to get his way, and this caused contention between him and Paul. Instead of staying with Paul whom God had called him to work with, he took John and went off on his own.

Paul chose Silas, and sadly you do not hear about Barnabas through the rest of the book of Acts, but you do read about Paul and Silas. Silas had come to where they were in Antioch, and you find out that the Holy Spirit had led Silas to remain when others had departed going back to Jerusalem because God knew He would need a replacement. Paul’s proof he had heard from God was the leaders in Antioch commended Paul. When you know God has connected you with the church body and the leadership He has for your life, stay where He planted you, for it is God who places us in the body where He has called us to fulfill our god-given purpose.

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