Articles
Blessed With A Running Start
BLESSED WITH A RUNNING START...
What advantage “in the Lord” were you given in your life?
Yesterday would have been my father’s 93rd birthday. His legacy to me is clearly the love of God and Jesus Christ my Lord. I wander sometimes what might have been if I were not born into a family that loves the Lord!
Paul reminded Timothy of such in an effort to encourage him...
2 Timothy 1:5 For I am mindful of the sincere faith within you, which first dwelt in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am sure that it is in you as well.
Many of us have had this advantage of a “running start” in our lives. Most of us are deeply appreciative of it. But there were times I didn’t take it seriously. I didn’t honor my father’s legacy as I should have. I now look back on those times with shame and guilt, realizing the dishonored I had for the advantage he gave me.
Again the apostle Paul reiterated to Timothy to rekindle and refresh what was given to him as a gift and show forth the advantage he was blessed with...
2 Timothy 1:6 For this reason I remind you to kindle afresh the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands.
Paul was of course speaking of a miraculous spiritual gift given him as a young preacher to preach and teach the gospel to others. But the principle is applicable to all of us who have been given such a blessing from another in receiving the advantages of knowing and loving the Lord. Timothy received from his family the advantage which lead to his life of preaching and teaching the Gospel of God and Jesus as Lord.
What am I doing to honor such an advantage that may have been given to me? Even those who may not have been raised in the faith like Timothy or myself, have had someone who has shown them the way. What honor are you showing them? What am I doing to pass on an advantage to another?
2 Timothy 1:7 For God has not given us a spirit of timidity, but of power and love and discipline.
Paul encourages Timothy to be outgoing in his approach to his advantage. Knowing and honoring the blessing someone else had given him in his life. The word timidity here is the word fear or cowering. The opposite of a spirit of timidity is a spirit of courage and strength. Paul is telling all of us who have been raised or helped in understanding the spiritual blessings of God in Jesus Christ to stand up, to be strong, and to accept the knowledge that God and Christ have given us in a spirit of power, being raised from spiritual death right now in the Lord... and given a spirit of love like the Lord’s to grant knowledge and wisdom of the gospel to others so they can have this same spiritual resurrection in following Him... and a spirit of discipline or self-control to transform ourselves and those we can now give the “running start to” into the children of God.
Not everyone was called as an Apostle or even a preacher or a teacher... My father wasn’t! But he gave me the overwhelming blessing of a “running start” for which I thank God every day of my life.
Who can I pass this blessing on to today?
- BLESSED_WITH_A_RUNNING_START.pdf (60.44 kB)
