SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 3/4/2025 9:39 AM
My Worship Time Focus:
“Useful To God”
Bible Reading & Meditation Reference: 2 Timothy
2:21c
Message of the verse: “useful to the Master”
Perhaps it would be a good idea to quote the entire
21st verse of 2 Timothy 2 “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.”
The Greek word for useful is euchrestos “easy to make use of, useful”
is from my online Bible dictionary. This
same word is used in 2 Timothy 4:11 where Paul writes “Only Luke is with me.
Pick up Mark and
bring him with you, for he is
useful to me for service.” Notice that things have surely changed in
Paul’s relationship with Mark from when they went on their first missionary
trip and Mark left and went back home. I
have to say maturity in the life of Mark made him now useful to Paul.
MacArthur writes: “The deepest desire of Paul’s own heart was
to be useful to the Master. He
testified, ‘Do you not know that those who run in a race all run, but only one
receives the prize? Run is such a way
that you may win. And everyone who
competes in the games exercises self-control in all things. They then do it to receive a perishable
wreath, but we an imperishable’ (1 Cor. 9:24-25). On the other hand, it was the apostle’s
greatest fear that he would lose his usefulness to the Master because of
sin. ‘Therefore I run in such a way, not
without aim,’ he continued; ‘I box in
such a way, as not beating the air; but I buffet my body and make it my slave,
lest possibly, after I have preached to others, I myself should be disqualified’
(vv. 26-27).
“Master translates despotes, from which we get ‘despot.’ Christians are not simply rightly related to
God; they wholly belong to God. He is our sovereign Master, our loving and
benevolent Lord, who actually owns us. ‘Do
you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom
you have from God, and that you are not your own? Paul asks rhetorically. ‘You have been bought with a price’ (1 Cor.
6:19-20).”
Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today: I think about the statement that sin can cause
me not to be useful to the Master, and that causes me to think about this
truth, knowing that because of my flesh that I sin from time to time.
My Steps of Faith for Today:
It is my desire to again go back and work on memorizing the 6th
and 7th chapters of Romans.
3/4/2025 10:01
AM
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