Thought for the day – Tuesday 3rd June 2020
2 Timothy 4 7 “ I have fought the good fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith”.
Paul, writing to Timothy, about to face execution after an unfair trial and an unjust sentence from Emperor Nero, says, “I have fought the fight; I have finished the race; I have kept the faith”.
Paul endured.
How did he manage to endure despite all the trials and tribulations he suffered as he carried the message of the glorious gospel of Christ far and wide ?
Well, Paul was wholehearted in his commitment. Just as Wesley’s hymn declares :-
My heart is full of Christ
And longs its glorious matter to declare… (Singing the Faith 506)
In Acts 11, when the gentiles (Greeks) in Antioch heard the gospel message of Christ’s sacrifice for sin, a great number turned to the Lord. Barnabas was sent by the Christian leaders in Jerusalem to see what was happening in Antioch. He exhorted these new believers to remain faithful to the Lord ‘with steadfast purpose’. Luke, who wrote Acts, says that it was in Antioch that the name ‘Christian’ was first used.
The ‘steadfast purpose’ of those first ‘Christians’ was a primary ingredient of their endurance.
It still is for us today.
Prayer
Help me, dear Lord, to sing (with feeling)
‘Through all the changing scenes of life
In trouble and in joy;
The praises of my God shall still
My heart and tongue employ’
Amen
(Singing the Faith 638)