2 Corinthians 12:15 
I will most gladly spend and be spent for you. If I love you more, am I to be loved less? (CSB)

I’d be most happy to empty my pockets, even mortgage my life, for your good. So how does it happen that the more I love you, the less I’m loved? (The Message)

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Some people specialize in helping other people spend their money. Gratitude is not the motive. Instead, they see an opportunity and take it. 

The Apostle Paul sounds like a man who would rather be wronged than deny an immature Christian’s grasping intentions. He put up with lots of bumps, bruises, and near bankruptcy for a selfish lot who took everything they could get their hands on without as much as a Thank-You note in return. (See chapter 11.)

You get the feeling he would do it all over again if he had to. Why? His motive was to bring them to Jesus and to present them as pure and perfected disciples. (See 11:1, 2.) 

Empty pockets in the cause of Christ were acceptable to him.

Mortgaging his life to fund his work was not too great of a sacrifice.

Having poured out all he had to lead them to faith and spiritual maturity, he was ready to give all he could earn and achieve to help them take their best next steps. Paul truly lived an above-and-beyond kind of life. He was a sacrificial leader. 

Paul never heard what we consider an old hymn, but he lived what we sing.

All to Jesus I surrender,
All to him I freely give;
I will ever love and trust Him,
In his presence daily live.

I surrender all,
I surrender all,
All to Thee, my blessed Savior,
I surrender all.

Do note that giving up and giving in are not the same things as surrender. Surrender is a welcome acknowledgment that all we have, all we are, and all we can become is a matter of God’s amazing grace and perfect love. It is a recognition that I am not my own; I have been bought with the price of Jesus’ death, burial, and resurrection. It is the ultimate freedom of saying to him, “I belong to you.”

Paul gave Jesus the freedom to deploy him as he saw fit. It’s a good day not to give up, not to give in, but to surrender to a greater purpose than any we could champion or achieve on our own.

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I will surrender to whatever God wants.

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Our Father, deploy me as you see fit. All that I have and all that I am belongs to you. Fill me with your Spirit, empower me for your purpose, use me to help others see how good you are. Amen.