December 4- If No One Else Will Stand By You, the Lord Will Come to Your Assistance Verse- At my first defense, no one came to my support, but everyone deserted me. May it not be held against them. 2 Timothy 4:16 It is a heart-crushing experience when friends let you down or when someone you thought to be faithful disappoints you. This has happened to everyone at some point. This happened to Timothy when he was serving as the senior pastor of the church of Ephesus. Leaders he thought would be faithful to the end had walked out and left him in a moment of trouble. If you have been hurt or betrayed by someone you loved, pay close attention to today’s verse, 2 Timothy 4:16. Paul is referring to the time he stood before the Roman imperial court to be tried for the first time. In that moment when he needed friends to testify in his defense, Paul discovered that every one of his friends had abandoned him. Paul is writing to Timothy to encourage him to stand strong in his own trials and to guide his mindset during his time of trouble. Notice how Paul doesn’t promise to Timothy that he will never be alone, but only that Christians should be forgiving of people no matter what they do to us. In the time where Paul was abandoned by men, he received a supernatural filling of divine power that super-charged him to bravely and victoriously face one of the most difficult times of his life. This is good news! It reminds us we can only count on God. Our friends are human and will mess up from time to time, but God will still give us enough strength to stand strong even when we are “alone”. So when you feel alone and worn out, draw on God’s strength to push you through today. Questions- 1. Can you think of several instances in your life when you felt extremely weak, but then Jesus Christ came alongside you and filled you with all the strength you needed to victoriously make it through the predicament you were facing? 2. Do you know a friend who is struggling right now and feeling very abandoned? Help them! 3. How did you know that God had touched you? What was the immediate change you felt?
Posted on: Wed, 04 Dec 2013 12:00:01 +0000
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