Teaching and Training, Day 35 The Lord be with your Spirit. What a beautiful phrase! Read 2 Timothy 4:19-22. As Paul closes out his letter to Timothy, he adds some final words or greeting to individuals and then closes with these final words in this verse pictured above. Not just that the Lord should be with you, but that the Lord be with your spirit. On the days when we are discouraged or delighted, the days when we are overwhelmed or overjoyed, no matter our circumstance, the Lord is to keep our spirit in check and lift it up. He is with us, but not just that. He is with…

Teaching and Training, Day 34 Attacks. Read 2 Timothy 4:16-18. Attacks will come. Paul knew this and he wanted to guard Timothy as much as possible and prepare him for the attacks that will come. However, it’s not Paul that was going to protect Timothy. God protects Timothy. They same us true for us today. We are to understand that the attacks that we face we are to be prepared for them. We are not to be surprised by them. But we must remember that God is the one that defends us. We don’t have to fight these battles on our own. God defends us. Are we relying on him…

Teaching and Training, Day 33 The personal message. As Paul is concluding this letter to Timothy, things start to get personal. Read 2 Timothy 4:9-15. We start to see that Paul is in need of fellowship. He lists multiple people who have left him and he requests that Timothy come to him. Then he explains that there has been someone who has made life very difficult for Paul and he advises Timothy to watch out for him. We could take the same advice. We all need people in our lives that we can love and walk through life with. We need those relationships because we cannot do this on our…

Teaching and Training, Day 32 Endurance. What does it take to finish well? That is the question that Paul is pondering as he works through his concluding statements to Timothy. Read 2 Timothy 4:6-8. Paul wants Timothy to understand that the end will come. Paul knows that he will die at some point. Yet, that is not a cause for grief, that is an opportunity for celebration. As Paul sees that end coming toward him, his focus is on ensuring that he finishes well. Is he enduring in the path that God has laid out before him? How else can Paul continue to glorify God and my God and bring…

Teaching and Training, Day 31 Real and fake. As Paul is wrapping up his letter to Timothy, he wants to make sure that Timothy can tell the difference between the real and the fake. Read 2 Timothy 4:1-5. Paul knows that there will come a point when people will no longer want to hear the truth of God. People will much prefer to hear what they want to hear, what is comfortable to hear, and as a result will move away from God’s truth. Just like this picture with the reflection of the sun, some people would choose to have just the reflection and not the actual sun itself. Paul…

Teaching and Training, Day 30 Consistency. I can’t tell you how many conversations I have each day talking about the importance of consistency. Read 2 Timothy 3:14-17. There are so many amazing truths in these four verses. I could separately discuss each and every one of them. However, for today, this verse stands out to me. Are we being consistent in what we do? Are we standing firm and continuing on as we do the things that we should be doing? So often, the Christian life is difficult and frustrating, and life happens and that can be really challenging. However, God calls us to consistently follow through on the things…

Teaching and Training, Day 29 The easy Christian life. Well, while some people may talk about the Christian life as if it is easy, the truth is that it is not. Read 2 Timothy 3:9-13. Paul doesn’t try to paint an overly rosy picture of what life is a Christian is about. Paul wants to teach and train Timothy, not give him false hope. The Christian life is amazing and rewarding and truly phenomenal, but it is not easy. There are difficulties and trials. People will not always like you. In fact, most people will not agree with you most of the time. Still, the Christian life is amazing and…

Teaching and Training, Day 28 What should we be learning? We think about both of these books that Paul has written to Timothy, and the focus has been on helping Timothy understand and learn. But why does that make Timothy any different from anyone else? Read 2 Timothy 3:6-9. Other people in this day were busy learning as well. However, Paul wanted Timothy to focus on truth. When we learn, it’s not just about gaining knowledge. We must be gaining truth. There are a lot of things in this world that we can know. The Internet has definitely widened the field of potential knowledge that we have and can know.…

Teaching and Training, Day 27 Sinful people act like sinful people. When we start to think about the way people act, it’s easy to see that our world is full of sinful people. Read read 2 Timothy 3:1-5. Paul understood the effects of sin. He had seen first hand the way in which sin impacts the lives of people. As people become more focused on their sin, the way they act changes. The way they think changes. Paul gives a laundry list in these 5 verses of all the different characteristics and attributes that make up someone who is living a sinful life. When we look at all the different…

Teaching and Training, Day 26 Fleeting and pursuing. We are to do both. Read 2 Timothy 2:20-26. As Paul continues teaching Timothy, we see that he indicates there are things we should be fleeing away from away from and there are things we should be pursuing. We cannot simply do one or the other. If we simply seek to flee from the evil things, we will not know what we should be doing. If we are only pursuing the good things, the evil that has been in our life will continue to hang around. We must actively choose to do both. We must flee the evil that is around us…