The Journey 1/12/11

I am reading 1st Timothy in my devotions this morning. What a great message to Timothy from Paul.

Paul gives Timothy several warnings to help keep Timothy from straying from the truth of the message of Jesus Christ.

Let me focus in on the charge to Timothy in chapter 6.

1 Timothy 6:11-12 But you, Timothy, are a man of God; so run from all these evil things. Pursue righteousness and a godly life, along with faith, love, perseverance, and gentleness. Fight the good fight for the true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses. NLT

He instructs him what to run from and what to run to.

What are you running from and what are you running to? Paul tells Timothy to run from evil things.

I wonder, at times, if what we run to could be considered evil if it keeps us from running to God.

So many times we run to the store, run to work, run to a school event, etc., and we are slow or at times negligent in running to church, prayer, serving, etc.

The store, work, school event, etc. are not necessarily evil in themselves but if we are bent more to those things then to the things of God they can become weights that keep us from pursuing God.

Hebrews 12:1-2 Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God's throne. NLT

What is it that you may be pursuing? If it is pulling you away from the things of God it may be time to do what Paul told Timothy to do. “Fight the good fight for true faith. Hold tightly to the eternal life to which God has called you, which you have confessed so well before many witnesses”.

Perhaps today is a good time to re-evaluate what we are pursuing and what it may be doing in us. Is it bringing us to a better relationship with God or pulling us from it? Only you can determine that.

Blessings.