BLESSED TO BE A BLESSING
Opening Prayer
Precious Jesus, your words teach me, they offer me salvation and build my faith; your examples show me how to live a life that pleases my heavenly Father, that testifies to his grace and mercy. Thank you—you have offered me all that I need to make a difference in my world today.
Read 2 TIMOTHY 1:1-7
For additional translations of the passage, use this link to Bible Gateway.
1 Paul, an apostle of Christ Jesus by the will of God, in keeping with the promise of life that is in Christ Jesus,
2 To Timothy, my dear son:
Grace, mercy and peace from God the Father and Christ Jesus our Lord.
Thanksgiving
3 I thank God, whom I serve, as my ancestors did, with a clear conscience, as night and day I constantly remember you in my prayers. 4 Recalling your tears, I long to see you, so that I may be filled with joy. 5 I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.
Appeal for Loyalty to Paul and the Gospel
6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For the Spirit God gave us does not make us timid, but gives us power, love and self-discipline.
New International Version (NIV)Holy Bible, New International Version®, NIV® Copyright ©1973, 1978, 1984, 2011 by Biblica, Inc.® Used by permission. All rights reserved worldwide.
Reflect
Praise God for the blessings he has given you in those who first shared Jesus with you and your new life in him.
In his first letter, Paul greeted Timothy as ‘my true son in the faith.’1 Here his greeting is ‘my dear son’ (v 2), showing his warm affection for his young convert and colleague. Paul ‘constantly’ remembers Timothy in his prayers (v 3).2 He must have had a large heart to carry such a loving concern for so many people. ‘Long’ (see v 4) is a word expressing intense desire. In Paul’s letters we see his real humanity. He was a stalwart soldier, but he had a tender heart. Do we pray regularly for others?
Timothy had a godly mother and grandmother. His father was Greek and presumably an unbeliever, his mother Eunice was a believing Jewish woman who became a Christian. His grandmother Lois had evidently been converted, for Paul talks of the ‘sincere faith’ of all three generations (v 5). These godly women had instructed Timothy out of the Old Testament so that from childhood he had ‘known the Holy Scriptures.’3 Timothy is urged to ‘fan into flame the gift of God’ (v 6) given to him when Paul laid his hands on him. This would most naturally be taken as the time of Timothy’s ordination. Are you aware of your God-given gifts? Are you using them in his service?
Paul reminds Timothy that God has not given us a spirit of timidity or cowardice, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline (v 7). The effective Christian worker must have the power of the Holy Spirit, but that power must be expressed in a loving spirit, or it may do damage. Be strong in the Spirit in your life and ministry.
Apply
Thank God that you have been blessed with every spiritual blessing in heavenly places in Christ Jesus.4
Closing prayer
Holy Spirit, you came to make me more like Jesus. Give me all that I need today to be a witness for him in what I say and do. Build my vision for how I can serve him, for how I can love others with his love.
1 1 Tim 1:2 2 Cf Rom 1:10; 1 Thess 1:2; 3:6 3 2 Tim 3:15 4 Cf Eph 1:3
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