ADORATION – Reflect on God’s Greatness
GOD IS FAITHFUL God is reliable and faithful in his words. He always does what he promises to do, and we can depend on him never to be unfaithful to his promises. Thus, he is “a God of faithfulness”
Numbers 23:19
God is not human, that he should lie, not a human being, that he should change his mind. Does he speak and then not act? Does he promise and not fulfill?
Praise God because He is Faithful
Praise God because He promised salvation and faithfully fulfilled his promise. Praise God that every promise He has made will be fulfilled. Praise God that He is faithfully present. Praise God for the times that you have personally experienced His faithfulness.
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 Onelink as they train students this week and send them overseas. Ask God to use their training and to prepare students to make the gospel known. Pray for the students going from WSU this summer.
SCRIPTURE READING:
2 Timothy 3 – The Message
Difficult Times Ahead
3 1-5 Don’t be naive. There are difficult times ahead. As the end approaches, people are going to be self-absorbed, money-hungry, self-promoting, stuck-up, profane, contemptuous of parents, crude, coarse, dog-eat-dog, unbending, slanderers, impulsively wild, savage, cynical, treacherous, ruthless, bloated windbags, addicted to lust, and allergic to God. They’ll make a show of religion, but behind the scenes they’re animals. Stay clear of these people.
6-9 These are the kind of people who smooth-talk themselves into the homes of unstable and needy women and take advantage of them; women who, depressed by their sinfulness, take up with every new religious fad that calls itself “truth.” They get exploited every time and never really learn. These men are like those old Egyptian frauds Jannes and Jambres, who challenged Moses. They were rejects from the faith, twisted in their thinking, defying truth itself. But nothing will come of these latest impostors. Everyone will see through them, just as people saw through that Egyptian hoax.
Keep the Message Alive
10-13 You’ve been a good apprentice to me, a part of my teaching, my manner of life, direction, faith, steadiness, love, patience, troubles, sufferings—suffering along with me in all the grief I had to put up with in Antioch, Iconium, and Lystra. And you also well know that God rescued me! Anyone who wants to live all out for Christ is in for a lot of trouble; there’s no getting around it. Unscrupulous con men will continue to exploit the faith. They’re as deceived as the people they lead astray. As long as they are out there, things can only get worse.
14-17 But don’t let it faze you. Stick with what you learned and believed, sure of the integrity of your teachers—why, you took in the sacred Scriptures with your mother’s milk! There’s nothing like the written Word of God for showing you the way to salvation through faith in Christ Jesus. Every part of Scripture is God-breathed and useful one way or another—showing us truth, exposing our rebellion, correcting our mistakes, training us to live God’s way. Through the Word we are put together and shaped up for the tasks God has for us.
SCRIPTURE REFLECTION:
“I don’t think verse 12 indicates that every Christian will die for their faith…but faithful servants of Christ will undergo testing and trials in their daily lives that will be costly to what they hold dear and that will prepare them for increasing sacrifice and pain.” (Yarbrough, Robert. The Letters to Timothy and Titus)
No one wants to suffer and yet, everyone will suffer. What are we to do about this? Are we to try and become people who are “ok” with suffering? Are we to try and “not care” about suffering? No, these approaches are not fully Christian. The Christian approach is to focus on the cross of Christ. To see purpose in suffering. To see hope in suffering. To see beyond suffering to the glory that the future holds for those who believe the gospel. We hurt. We cry. We are afraid. We are confused. We suffer. But we do all this with gospel hope. Consider the first three days of this week and remember the power of example, conviction, and truth. These principles come into play in powerful ways as we consider how we are to deal with suffering.