Focus
Pay attention to the tension in your body. Let go of it and any expectations to do anything other than God’s will today. Prepare yourself to hear God’s word.
Read
13 Hold to the standard of sound teaching that you have heard from me, in the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus. 14 Guard the good deposit entrusted to you, with the help of the Holy Spirit living in us.
15 You are aware that all who are in Asia have turned away from me, including Phygelus and Hermogenes. 16 May the Lord grant mercy to the household of Onesiphorus, because he often refreshed me and was not ashamed of my chain; 17 when he arrived in Rome, he eagerly searched for me and found me 18 —may the Lord grant that he will find mercy from the Lord on that day! And you know very well how much service he rendered in Ephesus.
Reflect
In this passage, Paul instructs Timothy to hold fast to the faith and if you look at the previous paragraph starting at verse 8, he also instructs him to not be ashamed of Jesus. Two points that should be modeled in our lives today. Interestingly enough, even in Paul and Timothy’s time, Asia was not the stronghold of Christianity.
Today in the United States, Christianity is not as strong as it was during the founding of this country. It makes one wonder what has happened. Christianity is diminishing so much that churches are closing every day. Are we ashamed of the Gospel? Have we not been doing our job of spreading the Gospel? Are we not holding fast to our faith giving into temptation or taking the easy way out? Now that COVID-19 restrictions are easing, we should feel more confident that we can do God’s work and spread the Gospel. Someone is always watching us. You never know when and where someone will approach you and need some Christian love. We should always hold the faith and never be ashamed of what God has done for us. We do it for other material things. Why not the Gospel?
Pray
Dear Heavenly Father, Help us to hold the faith and bright light to your Gospel to grow your kingdom throughout the world. In your Son’s name, Amen.
Go with God!
Leave a Reply
Your email is safe with us.