SPIRITUAL DIARY FOR 5/16/2025 8:25 AM
My Worship Time Focus: PT-3
“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.”
Let
us begin at some verses which speak of how Timothy often shared sufferings with
Paul. “13 But
when the Jews of Thessalonica found out that the word of God had been
proclaimed by Paul in Berea also, they came there as well, agitating and
stirring up the crowds. 14 Then immediately the brethren sent Paul out to go as
far as the sea; and Silas and Timothy remained there. 15 Now those who escorted
Paul brought him as far as Athens; and receiving a command for Silas and
Timothy to come to him as soon as possible, they left.”
Now we look at Acts 18:6 “6 But when they resisted and
blasphemed, he shook out his garments and said to them, "Your blood be
on your own heads! I am clean. From now on I will go to the Gentiles.’” Timothy was with Paul when this verse took
place.
John
MacArthur writes that “Timothy was with Paul during many, if not all, of the sufferings
that happened to [him] at Antioch, at Iconium and at Lystra. Those three cities were in Timothy’s home
province of Galatia, the first place during Paul’s missionary journeys where
Luke mentions hostility against him (see Acts 13:45, 50). Lystra was Timothy’s hometown, where he
doubtless saw Paul heal the man who had been born crippled and where he
witnessed the apostle’s being stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:8-10, 19). During his first encounter with Paul and for
the next several decades, Timothy had unparalleled privilege of living beside
and working with this man of great courage, resolution, and character.” When one looks at these words MacArthur
describing Paul, it is no wonder that it is said of the Apostle Paul that other
than Jesus Christ Paul lived the most holy life, and he suffered so much for
the cause of Christ. Believers can learn
so much from the life of the Apostle Paul as seen in the book of Acts and also
in the many letters that he wrote that are included in the Word of God.
MacArthur
goes on “When this letter was written, Timothy himself was facing opposition
and ridicule, the normal preludes of sufferings. As far as we know he did not suffer to the
same degree as his mentor, but with the apostle he could say to those to whom
he ministered, ‘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’ (2 Cor. 1:6). He also could say with Paul, ‘I consider that
the sufferings of this present time are not worthy to be compared with the glory
that is to be revealed to us’ (Rom. 8:18) and ‘I am well content with weaknesses,
with insults, with distresses, with persecutions, with difficulties, for Christ’s
sake; for when I am weak, then I am strong’ (2 Cor. 12:10).
“While in Athens, Paul sent Timothy, his ‘brother
and God’s fellow worker in the gospel of Christ,’ back to Thessalonica, ‘to
strengthen and encourage’ believers there, in order that ‘no man may be
disturbed by these afflictions; for you yourselves know that we have been destined
for this. For indeed when we were with
you, we kept telling you in advance that we were going to suffer affliction;
and so it came to pass, as you know’ (1 Thess. 3:2-4).
“Yet, ‘with all those persecutions I endured, Paul
continued, I can say with that out of them all the Lord delivered me!’ He could proclaim with David, ‘Many are the afflictions
of the righteous; but the Lord delivers him out of them all’ (Ps. 34:19). He could say with Shadrack, Meshach, and
Abednego, ‘Our God whom we serve is able to deliver us from the furnace of
blazing fire; and He will deliver us’ (Dan. 3:17). Timothy knew God had delivered Paul, and that
knowledge should have reinforced his courage to stand against the apostate
teachers and persecutors.
“Paul
and Timothy were not exceptions, because all who desire to live godly in Christ
Jesus will be persecuted. That also was
Jesus’ promise, ‘If the world hates you,’ He said,
you know that it has hated Me before it
hated you. 19 “If you were of the world, the world would love its own; but
because you are not of the world, but I chose you out of the world, because of
this the world hates you. 20 “Remember the word that I said to you, ‘A slave is
not greater than his master.’ If they persecuted Me, they will also persecute
you; if they kept My word, they will keep yours also. 21 “But all these things they
will do to you for My name’s sake, because they do not know the One who sent
Me.
Spiritual
meaning for my life today: I am to trust the Lord to do the work in my
life that will cause me to trust Him more for what He is doing in my life for
the cause of Christ.
My
Steps of Faith for Today: My wife and I continue to seek direction from
the Lord in order to be able to find the person or persons who will treat the
remaining cancer in her body so that it can be removed. We desire in all of this to bring glory to
the Lord.
5/16/2025 9:05 AM
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