SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 11/22/2024 8:50 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Appeal”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference:
2 Timothy 1:3b
Message of the verse: “as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day”
In today’s SD I will be looking at a fourth element of
motivation which was Paul’s constant appeal to the Lord on Timothy’s
behalf. I have to say that it would be
wonderful to have a person praying for me in the way that Paul constantly
prayed for Timothy. I would be hard to imagine the strength and encouragement
that Paul’s intercession gave to his young friend as he ministered to those who
were in Ephesus and also other parts of Asia Minor without Paul’s
companionship.
John MacArthur writes “The adverb adialeiptos (constantly) refers to that which is unceasing, without
interruption. We can be sure that Paul’s
saying I constantly remember you was not hyperbole. The apostle had used the same word in
exhorting Thessalonian believers to ‘pray without
ceasing’ (1 Thess. 5:17), emphasis added), and he was himself accustomed to
doing no less. He already had assured
those believers of his unceasing prayers and concerns for them (1:2-3). Using the same word, he assured the church at
Rome that ‘God, whom I serve in my spirit in the preaching of the gospel of His
Son, is my witness as to how unceasingly
I make mention of you, always in my prayers’ (Rom. 1:9-10, emphasis
added). He gave similar assurance to
believers in Corinth (1 Cor. 1:4), in Philippi (Phil. 1:3-4, in Colossae (Col.
1:3), and to his dear friend Philemon (Philem. 4).
“Prayers is from deesis, which in the New Testament always carries the idea of genuine entreaty and supplication before God. It was used by the angel who assured the godly father of John the Baptist, ‘Do not be afraid, Zacharias, for your petition [deesis] has been heard, and your wife Elizabeth will bear you a son and you will give him the name John’ (Luke 1:13). later in that gospel the word is used of the disciples of John the Baptist, who were said to ‘often fast and offer prayers’ (5:33). It was used by Paul of his ‘prayers to God’ for the salvation of his fellow Israelites (Rom. 10:1) and by James of ‘the effective prayer of a righteous man [which] can accomplish much’ (James 5:16).”
Now I was thinking about the words “night and day”
and as I was thinking about that at first glance, that reference seems
redundant and somewhat inappropriate.
Now the reason that it seems redundant is because, the definition, constantly
means around the clock, and inappropriate because it is likely that Paul and
his fellow prisoners could not distinguish one hour from another because they
were all in a dark dungeon and could not tell when the sun came up or when it
went down. Paul doubtless used the
phrase night and day in the way it is often used today, as a figure of speech
which expresses continuity. He simply wanted to reinforce his devotion to
Timothy and I am sure that Timothy realized what Paul meant as he had probably
heard that many times before.
Not the truth is that there is no better way to motivate
other believers to consider their accountability to be faithful and to more
their hearts in service of Christ than to hold them up before the Lord in
prayer and then to tell them that is that you are doing that.
Spiritual meaning
for my life today: The subject of
prayer, real prayer that believers pray, is a deep subject, something that I
realize is needed and that is why I have a prayer list or lists that I use on
different days. I suppose that there
have been many books written on the subject of prayer to help believers
understand more about it. I realize that
prayer is needed, that God will answer prayer, maybe not right away, but if it
is in His will He will answer it when He desires to do so.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: I trust the Lord that He has believer’s
praying for me as I am going through some harsh temptations and surely need
them to end.
11/22/2024 9:21 AM
No comments:
Post a Comment