Proverbs 1 -- How We Set Ourselves Up To Fail

The Bible plainly tells us in 1:7 that respect for the Lord is the start of a wise life.  If we don’t understand and respect that, it will lead us down the wrong path for everything else.

 

Three main points of wisdom follow:

 

1)      Be careful who you run with.  This is the most important way to avoid temptation to sin.

2)      Don’t play with temptation.  We think we’re able to dabble with it and not get snared, but Satan knows our buttons and the best time to push each one.  He ends up getting us to buy into something we never really planned to be a part of every time.

3)      Harming others, even for fun, is disobeying God and ultimately harming ourselves.  We set ourselves up to fail by doing so.

 

There are also three attributes about our behavior that easily prove to the world that we lack wisdom:  Closed ears, closed eyes, and a closed mind.  Verses 24-25 talk about how the unwise refuse to listen, paid no attention, and didn’t follow advice.  Amazing how we let Satan stop up our ears, distract our eyes, and give us amnesia about what we know to be right!

 

Aside from these, there is one other major obstacle to a wise life – apathy.  Verse 32 says “They will be destroyed because they do not CARE.”  There’s nothing that breaks my heart more than hearing someone respond to me after hearing God’s truth by saying the words, “I don’t care!”

 

Father, I especially ask for Your guidance for myself and for my sons this morning.  I know I was the same way when I was younger – headstrong and thinking that I was being wise by taking my own counsel instead of Your Word.  Instead, I was only being a wise guy.  I was not even as wise as the birds You mention here, who know to not fly into a net right before them.  Help my sons to be wiser and let them see the value of learning from my mistakes and not their own.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 38-42 -- The Only Answer We CAN Give

Job came up with the only answer he could:  “I am not worthy.  I cannot answer You anything.”

 

The barrage of questions begins again, and with each one, Job is made to understand even more how little he really knows.

 

God says at one point, “No one has ever given Me anything that I must pay back, because everything under the sky belongs to Me.”

 

Job goes back to one of the questions God had asked him:  “Who is this that made My purposes unclear by saying things that are not true?” and he truthfully and humbly answered, “Surely I spoke of things I did not understand; I talked of things too wonderful for me to know.”

 

And now that he has encountered God, he says, “My ears had heard of You before, but now my eyes have seen You.  So now I hate myself; I will change my heart and life.  I will sit in the dust and ashes.”

 

When we encounter God, we can’t help but be humbled and changed.

 

God then chastised Job’s friends and even said that Job would pray for THEM and God would listen to his prayer!  Praying for them after how they’d treated Job was probably the last thing he wanted to do, but now that he’d encountered God, he was ready to eagerly do whatever God commanded.  And once he did pray for them, God gave him back twice what he’d lost.  The man who was ready to die lived 140 more years, and God blessed him incredibly – all because he humbled himself and accepted being used by God to teach Satan a lesson.

 

Father, I don’t even know what to say.  I guess that’s good, because that’s how Job found himself.  I recognize You as sovereign over my life.  Please help me not to want to control it again.  Be God to me.  Forgive me.  Thank You for loving me!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 36-37 Our Heart's Response

How we respond in our hearts to God, whether He’s permitting suffering or bringing blessings into our lives, is everything to God. 

 

My commentary says, “The hypocrites only heap up wrath as they harden themselves against God.  No matter how much God disciplines them, they refuse to cry out for help.  But the humble in heart get God’s message and turn from their sins…. Job’s actions may have been right – he wasn’t the sinner his friends described him to be – but his attitude was wrong … Job was slowly moving toward a defiant, self-righteous attitude that was not at all healthy.  It was this know-it-all attitude that God exposed and destroyed when He appeared to Job and questioned him.”

 

Father, I want to remain humble before You.  You are God and I count it an indescribable privilege just to be able to pray to You.  You owe me nothing.  Your grace and mercy are more than I could ever dare ask or imagine.  Thank You for Your love!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 32-35 Electric Fences Built By God

A new guy comes onto the scene – Elihu.  He doesn’t agree with the old theology of the other friends of Job.  Suffering isn’t always a response to sin.  “He wasn’t trying to prove that Job was a sinner, but that Job’s view of God was wrong,” my commentary said.  “Elihu introduced a new truth into the debate:  that God sends suffering, not necessarily to punish us for our sins, but to keep us from sinning and to make us better persons…. God sometimes uses pain to warn us, humble us, and bring us to the place of submission.”  I loved another insight I read in my commentary:  “This man was suffering because God wants to get his attention and prevent him from breaking God’s law.”

 

Job had thrown down the gauntlet and was demanding an audience with God.  But God is sovereign and His creatures cannot demand things of their Creator.  Job doesn’t know what to do at this point, and he’s having trouble recognizing those spiritual electric fences that God has erected around him.

 

Father, I’m the first to admit that I’m prone to shoot myself in the foot.  I know what not to do, and I know Your love for me exceeds my own love for myself.  But sometimes, like a dumb animal, I need Your “herding” to keep me away from the edge of the cliff.  Let me never get to the point where I hate Your correction!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 29-31 Entitlement

No entitlement.  Many men, when beaten down by circumstances, will sooner or later end up feeling entitled to sin because of their circumstances.  Things have gone poorly, so “I deserve…”

 

Job is crying out to God, speaking of how he’s made righteousness his byword.  In the middle of it all, he says, “But I made an agreement with my eyes not to look with desire at a girl.”  Job was still married, yet his wife was encouraging him to curse God so he could die and get out of his misery!  Still he didn’t feel entitled to sin ”even a little”, with only his thought or his eyes, or with his body.

 

My commentary said about that verse:  “Lust is the first step toward sin, and sin is the first step toward death.  It is one thing to see and admire an attractive person, but it is quite something else to look for the purpose of lusting in the heart … While sin in the heart is not as destructive as sin actually committed, it is the first step toward the act; and you never know where a polluted imagination will lead you.  Furthermore, God above looks down and sees both our actions and ‘the thoughts and intents of the heart’; and He will judge both.”

 

In the middle of incredible suffering, Job fights off lust, and entitlement.

 

Father, I hate it when I find myself falling for Satan’s lies, and entitlement is probably his biggest lie.  Please remind me that, like lust, it can be the first step toward sin.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 24-28 Knowledge vs. Wisdom

“Those who fight against the light do not know God’s ways or stay in His paths … They want nothing to do with the light … God may let these evil people feel safe, but He is watching their ways.”  Job’s friends had been sure that they had wisdom, but were soon to find out how little they did know of God.

 

Job talked about their need for wisdom.  He described how greed can lead people to work slavishly for gold and gems, yet they won’t put that much effort into gaining God’s wisdom.

 

Job also said wisdom can’t be bought.  “Man doesn’t comprehend the price of wisdom and thinks he can get it cheaply,” my commentary said.  Job knew that the fear of the Lord is wisdom, and God had described Job that way.  “Fear of the Lord is not a fear that paralyzes, but one that energizes.  When you fear the Lord, you obey His commands, walk in His ways and serve him.  You are loyal to Him and give Him wholehearted service … You depart from evil,” my commentary added.  “The better we know Christ and the more we become like Him, the more we will walk in wisdom and understand the will of the Lord.

 

Father, I know that I cannot attain wisdom on my own.  I need You to sow me what is wise and what is not.  And the more You show me about Yourself, the more I realize just how little I know of You.  Keep peeling back the layers and continue revealing Yourself to me, Father.  I want to know You more.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 22-23 Job KNOWS God's Sovereignty

I read a lot today about God’s sovereignty.  Even though Job couldn’t see God during his “furnace experience,” he understood about God’s sovereignty and said, “But God knows the way I take, and when He has tested me, I will come out like gold.  Job wasn’t bragging.  He simply knew that God’s tests make us stronger and purer if we submit to His will, which Job as doing.  “If we resist His will, the furnace experience will only burn us up and make us bitter,” my commentary said. 

 

It continued, “Those who resist or deny the sovereignty of God rob themselves of peace and courage.  There is no attribute of God more comforting to His children than the doctrine of divine sovereignty … On the other had, there is no doctrine most hated by worldlings.  Why?  Because the human heart is proud and does not want to submit to Almighty God.”

 

I also read, “Job 23:14 must be contrasted with Jeremiah 27:11, where God states, “For I know the plans I have for you,’ declares the Lord, ‘plans to prosper you and not to harm you, plans to give you hope and a future.’”   Job had said, “He will do to me what He said He would do, and He has many plans like this.”  Putting the two together, God has many plans for us – plans that He knows will prosper us and not harm us, plants that will give us hope and a future.  Our part is those plans is to trust Him and remain faithful, knowing that in His sovereignty God can and will bring them all to pass.

 

Father, I’m reminded of an illustration You once brought my way.  You and I are on a bicycle built for two.  Your job is to steer and my job is simply to keep pedaling and to watch in amazement all the places You are taking me.  That requires me to acknowledge Your sovereignty.  Help me to believe that all the more every day.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 18-21 Amazing Insight Surely Given By God

Despite the horrible attempts of his friends to get Job to confess to sins that did not exist in his life, Job looks to God.  He still simply wants a chance to state his case.  Yet God still withholds His answer as He proves to Satan that Job is a righteous man even when God withholds His blessings.

 

Job again shows amazing insight and faith in 19:25-27.  “I know that my Defender lives, and in the end He will stand upon the earth.  Even after my skin has been destroyed, in my flesh I WILL see God.  I will see Him MYSELF.  I will see Him with my very own eyes.  How my heart wants that to happen!”

 

Amazing, amazing!

 

Father, Job didn’t yet know about Jesus Christ or resurrection, yet it’s clear that You had revealed some of Your plan to him at some point.  Thank You for giving me a Defender as well.  I’m glad I know what Job knew, and how my heart wants that to happen, too!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 15-17 A Different Theology Than His Friends Had

Eliphaz couldn’t believe Job’s words.  He and the others had to prove Job wrong, for “their own peace of mind was at stake … If Job was not a sinner being punished by God, then the three friends’ understanding of God was all wrong.  But that meant they had no protection against personal suffering themselves!  If obedience is not a guarantee of health and wealth, then what happened to Job might happen to them!  God forbid! … If everybody believed as Job did – that God does not always punish the wicked and reward the godly – then what motive would people have for obeying God? … This is the devil’s theology, the very thing that God was using Job to refute!  If people serve God only for what they get out of it, then they are not serving God at all; they are only serving themselves by making God their servant,” my commentary said.

 

It continued: 

“Job wanted a lawyer to plead his case before God and convince him that he was innocent … God’s people don’t need that kind of intercession … The Christian believer has this heavenly Advocate in Jesus Christ.  As our interceding High Priest, Christ gives us the conquering grace we need when we are tempted and tested.  If we fail, then He is our Advocate to forgive us and restore us when we confess our sins to Him.”

 

The world seems to think it’s all the worse when Christians sin, probably because they think Christians are supposing themselves to be holier than most and therefore are falling farther when they fail.  In the incredible mystery of God’s grace, though, when we fail, we are forgiven and restored when we confess our sins to Him.  He even comes looking for us to restore us, so great is His love.

 

Thank You, Father, for that grace and forgiveness.  Satan wants so much for us to believe the lie that we are the worst of the worst if we sin as Christians and that You will come after us for causing dishonor to Your Name.  Instead, You gain glory by forgiving us and restoring us!  Don’t let me listen to Satan’s lies.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 13-14 Begging God To Communicate

Job’s friends have spent all their time trying to convince Job to just admit his sins and ask God for forgiveness.  Job has lived an upright life, however, and he says, “I want to speak to the Almighty and to argue my case with God.”  (Be careful what you wish for, Job!)  Job knows that God is just and fair and his integrity cries out for an opportunity to speak with God.  “Even if God kills me, I have hope in Him …This is my salvation.  The wicked cannot come before Him.”

 

Job feels cut off from God.  Because he trusts God, he’d rather risk seeing God and dying in order to plead his case than continuing to suffer for some unknown reason.  He begs God, “God, please give me these two things … Take Your punishment away from me … then call me and I will answer, or let me speak, and You answer … Show me my wrong and my sin.”  Job pleas for communication with God.  He truly feels cut off.

 

As despair sets in, Job decides that if God isn’t going to grant him an audience, then God would be better to leave him alone in his few remaining sad days:  “Lord, do You need to watch me like this?”  He even feels like a laborer having to “put in his time”.  Life has become so burdensome for him.

 

New hope flares up and Job says, “I will wait until my change comes.  You will call, and I will answer You; You will desire the creature Your hands have made.  Then You will count my steps, but You will not keep track of my sin.  My wrongs will be closed up in a bag, and You will cover up my sin.”

 

Father, there’s great hope in these words:  “You will call, and I will answer You; You will desire the creature Your hands have made.”  Job had spent a lifetime seeking You, learning about You, and obeying You.  I want to do the same.  Reveal Yourself to me even more.  Help me to know You, and once You’ve shown me truths about Yourself and about my own life, help me to obey You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 8-10 -- Too Early On The Scene To Connect The Dots

Wow!  Such great stuff in these chapters!

 

Job struggled, understanding absolutely God’s sovereignty and His justice, but unable to reconcile that with his own need for mercy.  He didn’t yet know that God would handle that on the cross.

 

I had an acquaintance on Facebook last night who took issue with a photo someone else had posted that I decided to share.  The crux of his issue was that I had “judged the President’s soul” by sharing the photo that included the phrase “his soul is black”.  I privately messaged him, then removed the photo and instead clearly stated that I was not judging his soul but his actions.

 

It always seems that those who cry out “Don’t judge!” the loudest are also the ones most in fear of an unfavorable decision.  Here, Job wishes he could go to court and take his case there to prove he was innocent in that case.  But he says he’d need someone to make peace between him and God.  And Jesus would be that Peacemaker. 

 

I will gladly say, “Judge me!” and I would then follow with “I am the worst sinner.  I’ve been condemned and deserve nothing but death.  God agreed.  He then allowed His Son to be killed for my sins, even though He had never sinned.  And because God is a just God, He can now no longer condemn me, for in doing so, He would be unjust to His own Son, saying in effect that His death had been for nothing.

 

My commentary said, “Job could not understand what God was doing, and it was important the he not understand.  Had he known … he could have simply sat back and waited … Job was bankrupt and sick, and all he could give to the Lord was his suffering by faith; but that is just what God wanted in order to silence the devil.”

 

God knows what He’s doing.  We don’t.  End of discussion.

 

Father, thank You for showing me again this vital link between Your sovereignty, Your justice, and Your love and mercy.  I want no other Judge but You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 4-7 With Friends Like This ...

The first of three friends listens to Job’s complaints and then responds.  Eliphaz bases his entire theology on his experiences and on a dream he once had in which a spirit scared him.  He basically believes that punishment and hard times are a result of God’s chastening of sin in one’s life.  His bedside manner is appalling.

 

My commentary had a good observation:  In 5:17-27, Eliphaz is saying, “Confess your sins and God will restore all that you have lost.”  In other words, bargain with God.  “But this is Satan’s philosophy said in different words!  ‘Does Job fear God for nothing? … Skin for skin!  Yes, all that a man has he will give for his life.”

 

Job knew he hadn’t sinned and maintained his integrity as he responded.  He felt targeted by God for no reason.  Of course, he couldn’t see the reason that we are given in chapter 1 as we are given a glimpse into the throne room of heaven.  Job needed illumination, not accusation.  He wanted to know what God was doing.  Job even said in 7:20-21, “If I have sinned, then forgive me.  Why should I be a burden to You and to myself.”  My commentary said this wasn’t a confession of sin, but an opportunity for God to deal with areas in Job’s life that he knew nothing about.

 

The entire problem here came from a limited perspective.  “The friends’ theology was not vital and vibrant but dead and rigid, and the God they tried to defend was small enough to be understood and explained,” my commentary said.

 

Job will learn that God was revealing more of Himself through these experiences.  But it’s hard to see the forest for the trees when we’re in distress.

 

Father, help me to know how little I do know about You when I don’t understand.  Help me to trust Your love for me in those times.  When I can’t feel You hand, help me to trust Your heart.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 2-3 Job Knows

God kind of “rubs it in” to Satan that Job didn’t cave with all the calamities Satan had brought upon him.  This just stokes Satan up for another round.  Evidently, God is confident in how Job will fare and gives Satan permission to inflict him with physical suffering but not death.  Job’s wife can’t stand it all and begs Job to just curse God so his misery will end in death.  She is unwittingly being used by the tempter to get Job to do the one thing God forbade Satan to do.  Job answered, “Should we take only good things from God and not trouble?”  Amazing!

 

His three friends arrived hardly recognized him.  For seven days they simply sat with him and shared his misery – what good friends should do.  Job finally spoke, not wishing for death, but in a very Jewish way cursing the day of his birth.  It’s almost as if he believes that in doing so, God might go back in time and undo the event itself.

 

Job asked a lot of “why” questions.  My commentary noted:  “There is nothing wrong with asking why, as long as we don’t get the idea that God owes us an answer.  Even our Lord asked, “Why have You forsaken Me?”  But if the Lord did tell us why things happen as they do, would that ease our pain or heal our broken hearts? … We live on promises, not explanations; so we shouldn’t spend too much time asking God why.”

 

I also read, “In times of severe testing, our first question must not be, “How can I get out of this?” but “What can I get out of this?” … Faith is living without scheming.  It is obeying God in spite of feelings, circumstances, or consequences, knowing that He is working out His perfect plan in His way and in His time.  The two things Job would not give up were his faith in God and his integrity.”

 

One final thing I noted, in verses 25-26, Job saying, “Everything I feared and dreaded has happened to me.  I have no peace or quietness.  I have no rest, only trouble.”  Job feared and dreaded at some point in his life.  Did Satan read his thoughts and produce these very things to torment him?  If so, then it would be all the better for us to have no fear of things in this life because we know God is in complete control.

 

Father, just yesterday I was reflecting over events at work over the previous two years.  You assured me at that time that You had it all under control, so I believed you and didn’t fret over it.  I’ve lived on promises and I’ve watched as You’ve worked to bring about their fruition.  How differently those years have played out without fear than they could have.  How great it has been to be assured that You are at the helm, Your hands steady on the wheel, guiding us through it all.  I wouldn’t have it any other way.  Thank you for what You’ve shown me.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

Job 1 -- Seeing The Truth

My commentary brought out something really important:  As God and Satan were discussing Job in heaven, “God found no fault with Job, but Satan did … The word ‘Satan’ means ‘adversary, one who opposes the law.’  This is a courtroom scene, and God and Satan each deliver different verdicts about Job.  As you study this book, keep in mind that God said, ‘Not Guilty!’ … But Satan said, ‘Guilty!’ because he is the accuser of God’s people and finds nothing good in them.  Satan’s accusation against Job was really an attack on God … he was saying ‘The only reason Job fears You is because You pay him to do it… You are not a God worthy of worship!  You have to pay people to honor You.’ “

 

After Job lost everything, he looked back, remembering that he’d had nothing at birth.  He looked forward, knowing that he’d take nothing with him in death.  Finally, he looked up … “Instead of cursing God, as Satan said Job would do, Job blessed the Lord!  Anybody can say, “The Lord gave” or “The Lord has taken away”, but it takes real faith to say in the midst of sorrow and suffering, “Blessed be the name of the Lord.”

 

Satan is absolutely rotten.  Miserable himself, he tries to get us to be miserable with him.  That seems to be the only thing he takes joy in!  Yet he tries his very best to make us think that God is cheating us out of our joy with His rules.  Why do we listen to such drivel?  The only reason would seem to be that he sows doubt in our hearts about just how much God really loves us.  We don’t have to be a sucker for that line, for Jesus stretched out His arms on the cross and answered, “This much!”  And He died for us.

 

Father, this whole chapter was a battle in the heavenlies that You could win with both hands tied behind Your back.  As my commentary said, the fundamental reason for Job’s suffering was to silence the blasphemous accusations of Satan and prove that a man would honor God even though he had lost everything.  Satan needed to learn that You are a God worthy of man’s worship.  You knew Job’s heart, and it wasn’t mean of You to single him out for attack – You actually honored him by selecting him.  Help me to not fall for Satan’s lies.  Remind me that in Christ You call me “not guilty”.  Help me to respond in a manner worth of such grace!

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 4 -- Important Words

“Preach the Good News.  Be ready at all times, and tell the people what they need to do.  Tell them when they are wrong.  Encourage them with great patience and careful teaching … Control yourself at all times, accept troubles, do the work of telling the Good News, and complete all the duties of a servant of God.”  Paul was giving Timothy his final message.  It was more than a pep talk.  It was a word from God.

 

The world would read this and scream that no self-righteous preacher was going to tell them what to do!  But people have to hear or they won’t know.  My commentary said, “A preacher should afflict the comfortable, and comfort the afflicted.  If there is conviction but no remedy, we add to people’s burdens.  And if we encourage those who ought to be rebuked, WE ARE ASSISTING THEM TO SIN.”

 

Paul had told Timothy to be ready at all times.  I loved what I found in my commentary:  “It is easy to make excuses [for not speaking about the Gospel] when we ought to be making opportunities.”

 

It’s easy to not want to make people uncomfortable, but it’s discomfort that moves us.  Once in a management seminar, I was told that it was easy to teach an elephant to tap-dance.  You simply have to find a sharp stick and start poking!  God provides the sharp stick of His word and the opportunities for us to move people to a point where He can work in their lives.

 

Father, let me never miss an opportunity that You have engineered to change a life simply because I might be fearful of what that person or others might say.  Let me worry less about my own temporary discomfort and more about their eternal discomfort.  Finally, remind me often of the words You gave Timothy here – to control MYSELF at all times, to accept troubles, to do the work of telling the Good News, and to complete all of my duties as a servant of God.  Let my life be an offering to You.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 3 -- Unable To Think Straight

It’s hard to remember as we read these first verses that Paul is talking about people who seem to be religious:  They love themselves; they love money; they brag; they’re proud; they say evil things against others; they don’t obey their parents or act thankful toward them.  They even refuse to be the kind of people God wants.  They won’t love others; they refuse to forgive; they gossip; and they practice no self-control.  They’re cruel and hate what’s good; they turn against their friends.  They do foolish things without thinking.  They’re conceited and love pleasure more than God.

 

The problem, Paul says, is that their thinking has been ruined.  They are fooling themselves.

 

Last night I saw a note I’d written in my Bible in Ephesians 4 that said:  “Lost people don’t think the way we do because they can’t.”  A person of the world would look at Paul’s list and say, “So what??”  That’s because they walk in spiritual and moral callousness.  It takes the grace of a loving God to reach under the callousness to illuminate the fact that they’ve bought into a lie from Satan.  Until that happens, we’re all so sold on the lie that what matters most is our own pleasure and happiness.  We aren’t able to see through our ruined thinking.

 

Father, I was so absolutely wrong-headed and so sure I was right that I know now how absolutely true Your words are here.  I was sincere in my beliefs, but I was sincerely wrong.  That’s how badly Satan can blind us when we ever begin to doubt Your love for us.  Thank You for opening my eyes and for correcting my thinking.  Do so for others I love, too, Father.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 2 -- Separated, Not Isolated

“Everyone who wants to belong to the Lord must stop doing wrong … All who make themselves clean from evil will be used for special purposes.  They will be made holy, useful to the Master, ready to do any good work.  But run away from the evil young people like to do.”

 

My commentary noted the importance of staying involved in the world but remaining holy, separated from everything that would defile us.  “This includes the sins of the flesh as well … True Biblical separation is balanced:  we flee sin, but we follow after righteousness.  If we are not balanced, then we will be isolated instead of separated … It is sad when true believers are isolated because of a false view of separation.”

 

I think this goes back to “in the world but not of the world.”  We lose our effectiveness if we are not out among unbelievers, helping to point them to Christ.  Isolation won’t get the job done.  We balance all of this by fellowship, and we can use fellowship to draw in unbelievers, showing them particularly that they aren’t facing a life of isolation by becoming believers.

 

Father, I’ve felt isolation before – when I pulled myself away from my former worldly life in order to not be tempted by what my friends were doing.  But thankfully You brought me alongside friends who were believers, who You used to grow me spiritually.  Help me to do the same for others.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford

2 Timothy 1 -- UnderArmour's Motto

Timothy was far away from his mentor, Paul.  “He was timid ... and was tempted to let other people take advantage of him and not assert his authority as pastor,” my commentary said of Timothy.

 

Paul, writing from a Roman prison and knowing that his death sentence would soon be carried out, was writing to fan the spiritual flame in Timothy before that time.  “God did not give us a spirit that makes us afraid but a spirit of power and love and self-control.”

 

Paul also addressed Timothy’s natural shyness, saying, “I am not ashamed because I know Jesus.” 

 

The church at Ephesus had abandoned Paul while he’d been imprisoned, but Timothy hadn’t.  Paul wanted to make sure that Timothy stayed the course.  So he added, “Protect the truth that you were given; protect it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us.”

 

I think Paul’s words are just as important to us today.  The Holy Spirit resides IN our hearts, all the time.  Even so, we can make up our minds to willfully sin.  When we do, we are making a choice for that spirit that makes us afraid (which comes not from God but from Satan) rather than that spirit of power and love and self-control.  We are choosing fear rather than power!  Sin follows stupidity.

 

Father, I too know Jesus.  I too have been given that spirit of power and love and self-control.  When I’m tempted to sin, remind me of that.  Fan the flame of self-control particularly, Father, with that spirit of power.  Use them to protect the truth I’ve been given, for my body is Your temple.  Protect this house.

 

Your Brother In Christ,

Gary Ford