Wednesday, May 14, 2025

PT-1 "Difficult Experiences" (2 Timothy 3:11-13)

 

SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/14/2025 11:58 AM

 

My Worship Time                                                                 Focus:  PT-1 “Difficult Experiences”

 

Bible Reading & Meditation                                              Reference:  2 Timothy 3:11-13

 

            Message of the verses:  11 persecutions, and sufferings, such as happened to me at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra; what persecutions I endured, and out of them all the Lord rescued me! 12 Indeed, all who desire to live godly in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 13 But evil men and impostors will proceed from bad to worse, deceiving and being deceived.”

 

            I have just posted a Spiritual Diary on my other blog which came from my study of Psalm 34, and in that Spiritual Diary I wrote about a butterfly and that story goes well with what Paul is telling to his son in the faith, Timothy.

 

            “It makes me sad and also it makes me angry when I see on TV from time to time that a “preacher” will come on and say that if you send me some money then I will pray over your letter and the Lord will heal you.  I have also heard them say that once you become a believer that your life will be wonderful and that you will not have any more problems.  These are lies that come from the enemy.  To illustrate what I am talking about I want to tell a story about a butterfly and the struggle that it takes for a butterfly to get out of the cocoon.  This story begins with a worm and the worm will begin its life eating and will continue to eat and then it will be time for the worm to make a cocoon for itself.  We can see in this story something that pictures a person who is born into this world and then is transformed into a new life once they realize that he is a sinner and then believes in his heart that Christ died for their sins and we see in 2 Cor 5:17 “Therefore if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creature; the old things passed away; behold, new things have come.”  Now back to the butterfly and we mentioned that it is a struggle for the butterfly to get out of the cocoon and this is a good thing for the struggle will make it strong in order for it to accomplish the things that butterflies do.  If someone would see the butterfly struggling and decide that it would be better for them to help it out of the cocoon then the butterfly would probably die because it would not have the strength to live because it did not build up its strength by getting out of the cocoon on its own.  Now what can we learn from this story is actually seen in this section of Psalm 34?  We can see that God allows us to go through difficult times, we have seen this when we looked at the book of Job, and we know that God has a plan for our lives and will see us through the difficult times so that we can bring glory to Him, and also so we can help others who will go through perhaps the same trouble that we are going through.  Paul writes about this in 2 Cor. 1: 3 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, 4 who comforts us in all our affliction so that we will be able to comfort those who are in any affliction with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God. 5 For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance, so also our comfort is abundant through Christ. 6 But if we are afflicted, it is for your comfort and salvation; or if we are comforted, it is for your comfort, which is effective in the patient enduring of the same sufferings which we also suffer.”

 

            Struggling is not fun, and never will be but the truth is that God can use struggling to make you like a butterfly in this story just seen in this SD.  Paul would have never been the man that he became in the Lord without going through struggles.  When the Lord called Paul while he was going up to Damascus where He blinded Paul for three days, and then the Lord called a man to go and place his hands on him so that his eyes would be opened.  Here is the story from Acts 9 beginning in verse 10.  10 Now there was a disciple at Damascus named Ananias; and the Lord said to him in a vision, "Ananias." And he said, "Here I am, Lord." 11 And the Lord said to him, "Get up and go to the street called Straight, and inquire at the house of Judas for a man from Tarsus named Saul, for he is praying, 12 and he has seen in a vision a man named Ananias come in and lay his hands on him, so that he might regain his sight." 13 But Ananias answered, "Lord, I have heard from many about this man, how much harm he did to Your saints at Jerusalem; 14 and here he has authority from the chief priests to bind all who call on Your name." 15 But the Lord said to him, "Go, for he is a chosen instrument of Mine, to bear My name before the Gentiles and kings and the sons of Israel; 16 for I will show him how much he must suffer for My name’s sake." 17 So Ananias departed and entered the house, and after laying his hands on him said, "Brother Saul, the Lord Jesus, who appeared to you on the road by which you were coming, has sent me so that you may regain your sight and be filled with the Holy Spirit." 18 And immediately there fell from his eyes something like scales, and he regained his sight, and he got up and was baptized; 19 and he took food and was strengthened.

 

            The highlighted portion of the verses above is the point that I want to make and now at the end of his life Paul is telling Timothy that he suffered much for the cause of Christ and now Timothy will be taking his place, he too will suffer for the cause of Christ.

 

Spiritual Meaning for my Life Today:  Suffering for the cause of Christ is what believers may have to do, but suffering can cause a person to grow in the Lord.

 

My Steps of Faith for Today:  Trust the Lord for wisdom in taking the next step in what will be the next step in dealing with the cancer issues that my wife has.  The surgery was successful, but there is still more steps to make sure it will not return.

 

5/14/2025 12:25 PM

 

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