Ready for Anything
Dear Friends,
We have been thinking about how God equips us to serve him in prayerfully speaking his word in different situations. Now, the idea of being equipped is closely related to the idea of being ready or prepared. When we’re equipped, prepared or ready we have everything we need and don’t need anything more.
In 2 Timothy 2:24 Paul speaks to Timothy of being “prepared to do any good work.” What will give him this preparation and make him ready for anything (anything good, that is)? The earlier part of the verse says that those who “cleanse themselves” will be “made holy, useful to the Master.” And the next verse immediately encourages Timothy to “flee the evil desires of youth and pursue righteousness, faith and love.”
This teaches us an important lesson. It is those who are godly who are most useful to the Master. We constantly make the mistake of thinking that what we need is more knowledge or more skills – and we do! But knowledge and skills are no substitute for (godly) character. We find the same in the requirements for church leaders in 1 Timothy 3 and Titus 1: they are about character rather than knowledge or skills (with the one exception of being able to teach). Why is that? The godly person is more likely to be acquiring, and then using, skills and knowledge for the right reasons: the glory of God and the good of people.
Yours warmly, in Christ,
Chris Hobbs (Senior Minister)
16.02.2020