2 Timothy 2:3-7
Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. 4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. 5 An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. 6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. 7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
No solider should enlist expecting to have to buy his own bullets. Likewise, no soldier should enlist expecting to avoid bullets altogether. The one who seeks to follow Jesus will have a share of His help, but will also have a share of His sufferings. This won't come easily or naturally. You won't be able to do this without His help, but you must do it and seek His help in all of it.
1 Corinthians 9:7
Who serves as a soldier at his own expense? Who plants a vineyard without eating any of its fruit? Or who tends a flock without getting some of the milk?
Think this over. God wants you to get this. Take the time to turn this over in your mind like a farmer does soil Exercise your mind and put in the reps they way an athlete in training repeats movements.
2 Timothy 2:15
Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a worker who has no need to be ashamed, rightly handling the word of truth.
We do not do our best because God picks the A-team, but because He has given us His best and we want to honor Him in like manner. We show we honor Him by doing as He did, embracing that which He demonstrated – doing your best for the benefit of others.
God commands to our weakness and for the benefits of others.
2 Timothy 2:24-26
The Lord's servant must not be quarrelsome but kind to everyone, able to teach, patiently enduring evil, 25 correcting his opponents with gentleness. God may perhaps grant them repentance leading to a knowledge of the truth, 26 and they may come to their senses and escape from the snare of the devil, after being captured by him to do his will.
There will be a temptation to wear yourself out fighting things that do not matter. You must resist this temptation. There will also be a temptation to assume it's too soon to fight. But others need you to endure their evil and to correct their thinking and behaviors. It may be that God would use your willingness to fight the good fight of faith that wins them over to enlist in His service.
1 Timothy 1:18b-19
Wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience.
Others need to see you holding on to Jesus and holding yourself to a higher standard. Conscience is literally, "con = with + science = knowledge." So your conscience knows what you ought to do. Having a good conscience means you live in accordance with what you believe. In other words, assiduity: everything on purposes… all of Christ for all of life.
1 Timothy 4:12, 15-16
Let no one despise you for your youth, but set the believers an example in speech, in conduct, in love, in faith, in purity… Practice these things, immerse yourself in them, so that all may see your progress. 16 Keep a close watch on yourself and on the teaching. Persist in this, for by so doing you will save both yourself and your hearers.
You are never too young to apply God's Word to everything. In fact, being young is the best time to begin implementing these things. The older you get, the more set in your old ways you become. If you are a young Christian, someday your old ways will merely be immature Christianity instead of immaturity insanity. Better to look back on young faith and the mistakes it made than young faithlessness and the mistakes it made.
You will not be perfect. It will require practice. So immerse yourself in these things. Literally, "baptize" yourself in God and godliness. Assiduity again. Make Him part of everything. He already is. You just haven't acknowledged it yet in thought and deed, credenda and agenda.
If you do this, you will save yourself and by God's grace He will help you gather others for His glory and your encouragement. As you've heard me say many times, "Everything has problems." You will either have the kind of problems a Christian has or you will have the kind of problems an unbeliever has.
2 Timothy 3:12, 14
All who desire to live a godly life in Christ Jesus will be persecuted. 14 But as for you, continue in what you have learned and have firmly believed, knowing from whom you learned it.
I love you, brother.
P.S. The more you sweat in peace, the less you bleed in war. Sweat now, survive later.
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