12/20/2020
We place our love, and confidence, in the people and things around us, but we need to be careful when we do so. Things will fail us, and people will desert us, but the Lord our God will never leave us, and His love through Jesus Christ will shine on us in the darkest of hours... bringing eternity into us as He comes to abide in us.
“For Demas, in love with this present world, has deserted me and gone to Thessalonica. Crescens has gone to Galatia, Titus to Dalmatia.”
2 Timothy 4:10 ESV
As Paul aged, and was brought to trial for his teaching, his closest friends, and disciples, abandoned him. Even our Lord Jesus found that His disciples fell asleep repeatedly as He prayed and sweated blood in the Garden of Gethsemane, and that soon afterwards Peter, who was told by Jesus that he would become the rock on which His church would be built, denied Him. So who do we put our trust and faith in? Who do we love more than all others, and whose armor will never fail us in battle? Let’s listen to Paul again as he continues writing to Timothy of who stood by him while the others fell away...
“But the Lord stood by me and strengthened me, so that through me the message might be fully proclaimed and all the Gentiles might hear it. So I was rescued from the lion’s mouth.”
2 Timothy 4:17 ESV
Sometimes we place too much trust in those whose faith we think is unshakeable, but friends, Saints, and disciples, are human, and can succumb to their inherent human weaknesses. If we are not diligent in our faith in Jesus, the study of God’s Word, and loving God and our neighbors as we should... we too might become deserters when the trials come, or our faith requires us to bleed, or suffer.
Like Paul, who was heartbroken by those who deserted him, we need to stand tall, and hold firm to our faith. We need to keep praying, and fixing our eyes on the horizon as we watch for our savior. Paul wasn’t looking to be rescued from prison, or a horrible death... no, he was adamant in his belief that he would be saved from the clutches of evil, and delivered safely to God, and Jesus Christ... to eternity.
“The Lord will rescue me from every evil deed and bring me safely into his heavenly kingdom. To him be the glory forever and ever. Amen.”
2 Timothy 4:18 ESV
So will we be deserted by our friends? I am certain there will be many. Will the earthly things on which we have come to depend last forever? No, because they are made from created material, and it will eventually go away. Luke wrote these words of Jesus, as He spoke this truth which was voiced time and time again throughout scripture...
“Heaven and earth will pass away, but my words will not pass away.”
Luke 21:33 ESV
Peter also spoke of the end of creation in this way...
“But the day of the Lord will come like a thief, and then the heavens will pass away with a roar, and the heavenly bodies will be burned up and dissolved, and the earth and the works that are done on it will be exposed.”
2 Peter 3:10 ESV
Our only everlasting hope is in God, and His Son Jesus... the things we are told in God’s Word are eternal, and without end, and if we hold to our faith in them, and are obedient, we will have become one of those things that knows eternal life...
“And this is the testimony, that God gave us eternal life, and this life is in his Son. Whoever has the Son has life; whoever does not have the Son of God does not have life.”
1 John 5:11-12 ESV
Are we prepared to be deserted by friends, and to lose things? Are we ready to be Christlike and ask that those who have abandon us be forgiven? If so then pursue your faith, pick up you cross, seek out your own salvation with fear and trembling, and receive the promise of eternity because coupled with our great losses, and forgiveness, come amazing gains.
“At my first defense no one came to stand by me, but all deserted me. May it not be charged against them!”
2 Timothy 4:16 ESV
Prayer:
Father, thank you for never abandoning us, and for the eternity we find in Jesus Christ. Thank you Lord for those who abandon us, and betray us, because in this way we can forgive them, even as you forgive us. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God whose Word is eternal, and who, through your Son Jesus, welcomes us into eternity with you. Praised be your name for those who abandon us like Demas, and those who deny knowing us as Peter did Jesus, because in so doing we learn to forgive, and they learn new and deeper secrets regarding the mysteries of faith. You are merciful Holy Father, and your Son Jesus pours out your grace upon us. You teach us to love, pray, and forgive even in the midst of our heartbreaks. How great the heartbreak must have been in the Garden of Eden, and on Calvary, but how amazing your joy as the stone was rolled away from the tomb, and the defeat of death came to join our redemption from sin. Hear our prayers of praise Father, and forgive us as we forgive those who break our hearts, and disappoint us in so many ways. Give us eternity in Christ, and welcome us into eternal life... and the new Jerusalem that is to come.
“The Lord be with your spirit. Grace be with you.”
2 Timothy 4:22 ESV
Rich Forbes