SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/5/2025 9:42 AM
My Worship Time Focus: “Prepared
For Good Works”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
2:21d
Message of the
verse: “21
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from these things, he will be a
vessel for honor, sanctified, useful to the Master, prepared for every good work.”
In John MacArthur’s commentary on this section there
is only one paragraph, and so that means this will be a short SD. I will quote from what he wrote in a moment,
but as I look at the highlighted section in verse 21, what we are looking at
this morning I can help but think of Ephesians 2:10 “For we are His
workmanship, created in
Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand so that we would walk in them.” I realize that I have written about what I
believe this verse means many times in earlier SD’s, but to me it is a very
important verse to think about and to best understand what Paul is talking
about to the Ephesians. He has just told
them in verses 8-9 the following “8 For by grace you have been saved
through faith; and that not of yourselves, it is the
gift of God; 9 not as a result of works, so that no one may boast.” Paul is
telling the Ephesians how they became believers, which was by grace you have
been saved through faith.” He then tells
them it has nothing to do
with works in order to please God as being a way of salvation. Then he tells them that because they have
been saved by grace through faith that they will begin to work on the things
that God has planned for them to do because they are now believers. This is how the true church works, that is that
God chose people from eternity past to become a part of the church and each one
of them has been given gifts in order to do the work that He has called them to
do for the cause of Christ. Think about how well the church could operate if
everyone in it were doing the works that God has called them to do.
Now
I will quote from MacArthur commentary on this partial verse.
“A
vessel of honor to the Lord is prepared for every good work. Hetoimazo (prepared) carries the idea of
willingness and eagerness as well as of readiness. Like ‘sanctified,’ prepared translates from a
perfect passive, indicating a condition that already exists. When we were saved, the Lord placed us in a
state of divine preparedness, in which we received His own Holy Spirit to
indwell us and empower us. We also have
His divine Word in Scripture to teach us His truth and His will. But unlike a metal, earthenware, or wooden
vessel, a human vessel has a will. Our
full preparedness for the Lord’s service therefore demands more than simply having His Spirit within us and possessing the particular talents and
gifts He has provided and knowing the
truth Hee has revealed. It also demands
our genuine and unreserved willingness to submit
to His Spirit, to use those talents
and gifts, and to obey His revealed
truth in His service and in His power.
In the words of the hymn quoted earlier, the truly prepared Christian
can honestly say, ‘To be used of God is my desire.’”
Spiritual
Meaning for my Life Today: “To be used of God is my desire” is a
perfectly good place to start, and to fulfill that I am to realize that gifts
that He has given me and allow the Spirit of God to use those gifts by His
power.
My
Steps of Faith For Today: I trust that the Lord will continue to work
in my life even though we are going through some harder times waiting on what
the doctor has found out after my wife’s surgery. Trusting the Lord and waiting on Him is
sometimes difficult and we are in the need of some grace at this time for sure.
3/5/2025 10:09 AM
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