Skip to main content

1 Timothy 2:1-10 Devotional – Day 4

ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness

OMNIPOTENCE  God’s omnipotence refers to his power to do what he decides to do. Omnipotence derives from two Latin words, omni, “all,” and potens, “powerful,” and means “all-powerful.” Numerous passages speak to God’s omnipotence:

    • In context, the rhetorical question, “Is anything too hard for the Lord?” (Genesis 18:14; Jeremiah 32:27) implies that nothing is too hard for the Lord.
    • Jeremiah also says to God, “nothing is too hard for you” (Jeremiah 32:17).
    • Paul says that God is “able to do far more abundantly than all that we ask or think” (Ephesians 3:20).
    • God is called the “Almighty” (2 Corinthians 6:18; Revelation 1:8), a Greek term (pantokratōr) that suggests the possession of all power and authority.
    • The angel Gabriel says to Mary, “With God nothing will be impossible” (Luke 1:37)
    • Jesus says, “With God all things are possible” (Matthew 19:26).

However, there are some things that God cannot do. God cannot do anything that denies his own character. For example, Scripture tells us that God can’t lie:

    • In Titus 1:2 he is called (literally) “the unlying God” or the “God who never lies.”
    • The author of Hebrews says that in God’s oath and promise “it is impossible for God to lie” (Hebrew 6:18, Grudem’s translation).
    • 2 Timothy 2:13 says of Christ, “He cannot deny himself.”

Additionally, James says, “God cannot be tempted with evil and he himself tempts no one” (James 1:13). Thus, God cannot lie, sin, deny himself, or be tempted with evil. He cannot cease to exist, or cease to be God, or act in a way inconsistent with any of his attributes.

Praise the Omnipotent God.

Praise Him for making and sustaining the universe. Praise Him for providing a way for salvation. Praise Him because He rose from the dead. Praise Him because nothing is too hard for Him.

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 2:1-10 – The Message
Simple Faith and Plain Truth
2 1-3 The first thing I want you to do is pray. Pray every way you know how, for everyone you know. Pray especially for rulers and their governments to rule well so we can be quietly about our business of living simply, in humble contemplation. This is the way our Savior God wants us to live.

4-7 He wants not only us but everyone saved, you know, everyone to get to know the truth we’ve learned: that there’s one God and only one, and one Priest-Mediator between God and us—Jesus, who offered himself in exchange for everyone held captive by sin, to set them all free. Eventually the news is going to get out. This and this only has been my appointed work: getting this news to those who have never heard of God, and explaining how it works by simple faith and plain truth.

8-10 Since prayer is at the bottom of all this, what I want mostly is for men to pray—not shaking angry fists at enemies but raising holy hands to God. And I want women to get in there with the men in humility before God, not primping before a mirror or chasing the latest fashions but doing something beautiful for God and becoming beautiful doing it.

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

SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:

We can breeze through verses 8-10 and touch the surface without plumbing the depths of what Paul is teaching here. He says he wants men to pray with holy hands and without anger or disputing. This means that God is interested in what is happening in the hearts of men. He wants women to dress modestly, with good deeds appropriate for those who profess to worship God. This means that God is interested in what is happening in the hearts of women. Bottom line, God wants hearts that are pure and fixed on him in worship. Really, anything less is not really worship. Clearly he doesn’t want women to pray with anger and he doesn’t want men to focus on their physical appearance. We must not miss the mountain for the molehills here. The molehills are the application, the mountain is true worship of God. God wants us to have hearts that are saying “yes” to him. If we come to worship harboring anger or focused on what we think others think of us…our hearts cannot be in the “yes God” position. As you come to God in private worship or in public worship, check your heart. Are your “holy hands” lifted up in submission to him? If so, you will forgive others. If so, you will consider others and not just what others might be thinking of you. Make this your direction, even if we will never arrive at a place of perfection.

Leave a Reply