Skip to main content

1 Timothy 1 Devotional – Day 4

By February 24, 2022Daily Devotional

ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness

GOD IS PERSONAL
God is a self-conscious Being capable of thought, will, and interaction with His creation. We can see that God is personal, especially as we read the Psalms. In the Psalms, David refers to God as “my shepherd” or “my portion” or “my light.” God is not just a portion or a Shepherd, but God is a personal shepherd to David.

Psalm 16:5 Lord, you alone are my portion and my cup; you make my lot secure.
Psalm 23:1 The Lord is my shepherd. I shall not be in want.

Praise the Personal God
Praise God because He can relate with you personally. He is infinite and all-powerful, but He can also relate with you. Praise God because He can personally lead you and shepherd you.

CONFESSION: Confess your sins to God and receive his continued mercy.

“If we confess our sins, he is faithful and just and will forgive us our sins and purify us from all unrighteousness.” 1 John 1:9

THANKSGIVING: Giving thanks to God for his specific blessings in our lives.

“Shout for joy to the Lord, all the earth. Worship the Lord with gladness; come before him with joyful songs. Know that the Lord is God. It is he who made us, and we are his; we are his people, the sheep of his pasture. Enter his gates with thanksgiving and his courts with praise; give thanks to him and praise his name. For the Lord is good and his love endures forever; his faithfulness continues through all generations.” Psalm 100

SUPPLICATION: Bringing our requests to God.

  • Bring your personal prayer requests to God.
  • Pray for Christian Challenge. Pray that college students would grow in the faith. Pray that their time together under the word would be sweet and encouraging. Ask God to move among them tonight.

SCRIPTURE READING:
1 Timothy 1 – The Message
1-2 I, Paul, am an apostle on special assignment for Christ, our living hope. Under God our Savior’s command, I’m writing this to you, Timothy, my son in the faith. All the best from our God and Christ be yours!

Self-Appointed Experts on Life
3-4 On my way to the province of Macedonia, I advised you to stay in Ephesus. Well, I haven’t changed my mind. Stay right there on top of things so that the teaching stays on track. Apparently some people have been introducing fantasy stories and fanciful family trees that digress into silliness instead of pulling the people back into the center, deepening faith and obedience.

5-7 The whole point of what we’re urging is simply love—love uncontaminated by self-interest and counterfeit faith, a life open to God. Those who fail to keep to this point soon wander off into dead ends of gossip. They set themselves up as experts on religious issues, but haven’t the remotest idea of what they’re holding forth with such imposing eloquence.

8-11 It’s true that moral guidance and counsel need to be given, but the way you say it and to whom you say it are as important as what you say. It’s obvious, isn’t it, that the law code isn’t primarily for people who live responsibly, but for the irresponsible, who defy all authority, riding roughshod over God, life, sex, truth, whatever! They are cynical toward this great Message I’ve been put in charge of by this great God.

* * *

12-14 I’m so grateful to Christ Jesus for making me adequate to do this work. He went out on a limb, you know, in trusting me with this ministry. The only credentials I brought to it were violence and witch hunts and arrogance. But I was treated mercifully because I didn’t know what I was doing—didn’t know Who I was doing it against! Grace mixed with faith and love poured over me and into me. And all because of Jesus.

15-19 Here’s a word you can take to heart and depend on: Jesus Christ came into the world to save sinners. I’m proof—Public Sinner Number One—of someone who could never have made it apart from sheer mercy. And now he shows me off—evidence of his endless patience—to those who are right on the edge of trusting him forever.

Deep honor and bright glory
to the King of All Time—
One God, Immortal, Invisible,
ever and always. Oh, yes!

I’m passing this work on to you, my son Timothy. The prophetic word that was directed to you prepared us for this. All those prayers are coming together now so you will do this well, fearless in your struggle, keeping a firm grip on your faith and on yourself. After all, this is a fight we’re in.

19-20 There are some, you know, who by relaxing their grip and thinking anything goes have made a thorough mess of their faith. Hymenaeus and Alexander are two of them. I let them wander off to Satan to be taught a lesson or two about not blaspheming.

Copyright © 1993, 2002, 2018 by Eugene H. Peterson

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:

Now to the King eternal, immortal, invisible, the only God, be honor and glory for ever and ever. Amen.
There has been an ongoing debate/controversy in the military about “praying in Jesus name.” When chaplains are asked to pray at an event where members are there in a non-voluntary status, they are encouraged to pray prayers that take into account all the different views present there. This has outraged some people who say that chaplains’ rights to “pray in Jesus name” have been violated. I don’t agree with them on this but I won’t go down that rabbit trail. I will simply say this. For every Christian, every prayer is “in the name of Jesus” whether you use those words or not. We are only able to come freely to God because Jesus has opened the way for us. To do something in someone’s name means to operate under their authority. To pray in Jesus name is not to tack on a phrase as if it were a sort of magic incantation, it means that you come to God and make your requests because Jesus has given you that authority. Paul’s prayer here does not include the phrase, “In Jesus name” but it certainly is only able to be prayed because of the authority, the opportunity, that Jesus has given through his sacrificial death.

Leave a Reply