1 Timothy 6:20 “O Timothy, guard what has been entrusted to you.”
Observation: Years ago my daughter, Rachel, and I would leave the home we had shared for six months as we drive to the State of Maine so she could settle into medical school.
Late the night before, Rachel and I sat together simply savoring the intensity of the changes now before us. While I am on this trip, the sale of my home is to be concluded. This makes Rachel’s transition even more bittersweet, as we both know she will not be returning to this house—this place where she and I established new ways of living after my wife Cindy’s death. In a very real sense, we are both feeling a fresh wave of loss because of that.
Application: But as I read the phrase, “Guard what has been entrusted to you,” I am heartened again with the reminder that Rachel and I had a call to go forward. None of us knows what the future holds, but I do know that one day literally everything I see, and everything I know of this world, will in an instant, be changed, as the Lord Jesus returns to earth to claim His own. Meanwhile, I am called to use whatever gifts and talents He has given me in service of the advance of His kingdom.
He has entrusted much to each of us who love Him. We are, literally, the fulfillment, the embodiment, of His purpose on earth, as we have traded our life’s devastation and loss for His life of eternal joy and peace. He calls us to guard those things, nurture them and practice making use of them. How are we to do that? The rest of the verse tells us: “avoiding worldly and empty chatter and the opposing arguments of what is falsely called ‘knowledge.’”
Prayer: Lord, as we drive away, I pray that You would so firmly fix our eyes upon Jesus over these next two weeks that worldly and empty chatter would hold no attraction. Bless us, Lord, as we walk into the future You have prepared. And cause us to continually reflect upon Your overwhelming goodness in our lives as the things of this world dim in comparison to the light of Your marvelous grace.