Thought for 1 March

 2 Timothy 1:7 and 9

For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love and self-discipline. 

It is God who saved us and chose us to live a holy life.  He did this not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan long before the world began – to show his love and kindness to us through Christ Jesus.

It’s the first of March.  Is it only me that’s wondering where January and February went?  In my world, they seemed to pass in a flash.  We booked a holiday in the middle of last year and since then, it always seemed ages away.  I’ve just realised its next month and there’s a lot of things still to be done before then.  I’ve never been the best at planning despite using the wee saying; ‘failure to plan is planning to fail’ quite a few times in these articles so in the next few weeks I’m going to have to come up with satisfactory answers to many questions directed at me along the lines of; ‘have you done X, Y and Z yet’.

I find it hard to take in the extent of the plans God has made (as Paul writes); ‘long before the world began’.  I find the power, skills, abilities, character and love of this God of ours is just so far beyond our powers of understanding, it is just impossible for our minds to take it all in.  At best, I reckon we can take a wee bit of it in and even that little bit is incredible.  The hymn writers fall well short when they say ‘Our God is an awesome God’ or ‘Our God is a great big God’ because I believe that the words to describe our God adequately don’t even exist.

If we read articles like this regularly and find them meaningful, if we feel the need to attend church, if we feel the need to pray, if we feel the need to thank God, have you thought about what makes us do this?  Could it be that God has chosen us (as Paul writes) and sent his Holy Spirit to live within us?  I can’t come up with any reasonable alternatives so I’m more than happy to go along with the one Paul provides in this letter to Timothy we are considering today.

I am sure we have all found ourselves in situations where we behave differently due to our Christian beliefs than we would have done otherwise, times when we chose to speak when we would previously have remained silent, times when we remain silent when we would previously have said something we might later regret, times when we may have given comfort to someone due to our generosity where we previously might have ignored the situation or maybe even having taken a little time to be there for someone and just listen where previously we might not have been prepared to put aside the time.  Behaviour like this echoes the words of Paul in the first line of today’s reading and is as true today as on the day the words were first written.

I came across this wee verse on social media and thought it was relevant to today’s passage and worth sharing;

‘Those who died yesterday had plans for this morning.

And those who died this morning had plans for tonight.

Don’t take life for granted.  In the blink of an eye, everything can change.

So forgive often and love with all your heart.

You may never know when you may not have that chance again.’

Prayer – Heavenly Father, thank You for the truth of the old, old story, which has remained as fresh and impelling for believers today, as the day when Paul wrote this letter to Timothy, encouraging him to stand fast in the faith and to testify of God's perfect plan of salvation. We thank You that Christ was sent to abolish death and to bring life and hope to those who believe. We thank You that He is coming again to finish His work, when all things will be placed under His feet. May we be strong in our Christian journey, and use us according to our individual abilities.  In your most gracious name we pray,  Amen