Monday, May 1, 2023
“For the which cause I also suffer these things: nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day” (2 Timothy 1:12 KJV).
Dear friend, you do not have to lose everything!
Philippians 4:11-13: “[11] Not that I speak in respect of want: for I have learned, in whatsoever state I am, therewith to be content. [12] I know both how to be abased, and I know how to abound: every where and in all things I am instructed both to be full and to be hungry, both to abound and to suffer need. [13] I can do all things through Christ which strengtheneth me.” Paul had experienced the full gamut—having all and having nothing, fed and hungry, and so on. No matter his circumstances, he learned something: be content, be grateful, be thankful. His God was with him through it all, good and bad; Christ had strengthened him in every situation, reminding him not to rely on self but on Him!
Notice verse 8, the context of today’s Scripture: “Be not thou therefore ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner: but be thou partaker of the afflictions of the gospel according to the power of God.” Paul was in a Roman prison, anticipating his execution, for the Lord’s sake. “Whereunto I am appointed a preacher, and an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. For the which cause I also suffer these things…” (verse 11 plus a portion of today’s Scripture).
Paul had been prosperous as Saul of Tarsus, a false teacher in Judaism (see Galatians 1:13,14)—now he had nothing in his prison cell. He had countless Christian “friends” in Asia Minor or Turkey—now they had forsaken him (2 Timothy 1:15). Soon, he would be dead—his health permanently taken from him. Fully aware of all these realities, he penned, “Nevertheless I am not ashamed: for I know whom I have believed, and am persuaded that he is able to keep that which I have committed unto him against that day.”
Herein is adult Christian thinking….
333 Words of Grace 