His Ideas...Not Ours

2 Timothy 4:3-4 -   For there is going to come a time when people won’t listen to the truth but will go around looking for teachers who will tell them just what they want to hear.  They won’t listen to what the Bible says but will blithely follow their own misguided ideas.

These words of caution were included in Paul’s last letter to Timothy. His urgency ….his solemn tone… his plea of persistence in all situations….give this warning credibility. Timothy was fixing to take over the core of Paul’s ministry…he needed to understand just what he would be up against.

Perhaps the world has always had people like this…hedonistic …self-gratifiers that make up rules as they need them to fit their beliefs. But it seems as though we have reached these days…more and more people adopting a new ‘religion’ that fits the way they want to live … or rejecting all forms of higher powers completely.

Elijah proved to me that God was in charge of the world when he called down fire to consume a sacrifice after the priests of Baal had tried all day. Read 1 Kings 18 if you haven’t heard this story. Perhaps we need to have another contest of fire to show the world just who is in charge… but I choose to let the stories of miracles people tell me confirm my belief.

Contest….miracles…or lack of these things we are still to follow God in complete faith.  In Paul’s words from verse 2….  ^“to preach the Word of God urgently at all times, whenever you get the chance, in season and out, when it is convenient and when it is not. Correct and rebuke your people when they need it, encourage them to do right, and all the time be feeding them patiently with God’s Word.”  Those underlined parts are to remind me of the core of Paul’s advice.

We have no excuses…Paul tells us all throughout his writings that God will give us all that we need to complete this task. Philippians 4:19 says…. “And my God will meet all your needs according to the riches of his glory in Christ Jesus.” Jesus himself charged us in Matthew 28….and gave us all authority to do His work while He was absent from this earth.

I will be the first to admit that I don’t do near enough to change the minds of those that have chosen to follow their own ideas. I was even caught up for some time in my own selfish …hypocritical version of Christianity. I have miles to go before I will feel as confident as Elijah…or Paul….but I have this one thing in my corner.  God loves me and will stick with me till I get there…training me the whole time.

Father…thank you for the reminder that I have everything I need in you….and you alone are the answer to everything I will encounter. Forgive me for the times that I have let my own ideas take over my thinking….and trick me into thinking that my own ideas are the same as yours.  Help me to always think like Paul…and Moses…and Elijah …. and Jesus…who knew the power to do anything lay with their faith in you. Amen.