One of the most unreliable things we trust in is money.

We think we can buy happiness with the bigger house or the new car or the new pair of shoes.  And when we buy them, we are happy….for a time.  And then we get something else on our mind that we think we have to have in order to be happy.

Paul is talking to Timothy about how unreliable money is and that our trust needs to be in God.  God gives us everything we need to make us happy.

Then Paul says that rich people need to use their money to do good, being generous with those in need and always being ready to share.  By doing this, they will experience true life!

We know that Americans are the richest people on the planet.  But how happy are we?  How many of us are experiencing true life?

What’s wrong with this picture?

Timothy was a fortunate young man who received a legacy of genuine faith from his mother and his grandmother.  He was obviously brought up in a home which had at least two very strong role-models for him.

He also clearly chose Christ for himself as he followed in his mother and grandmother’s footsteps.

Many of their prayers for Timothy were answered as he was mentored by Paul and began his own ministry.  He was young but he had courage because of the rock-solid faith that had nurtured him.

Paul also tells Timothy to ‘fan into flame’ of the spiritual gift that was given him.  Timothy was now responsible for his own growing faith.  He had been given a great start and now it was going to be his choices that determined the direction of the rest of his life.

This reminds me that, no matter what kind of start we were given on this path of faith, our choices today determine our direction for the rest of us lives.  We may not be as young as Timothy 🙂 but we still have choices.  And they determine how we spend our time and how we spend our money – and that’s where our hearts are.  And that’s the legacy that we will leave behind.

Dear Father, we ask that you guide us into making choices that bring us closer to you.  We want to leave a legacy of faith.

for you to wait.

We often quote the scripture in Jeremiah 29 where God tells us that his plans for us are good and not for disaster, to give us a future and a hope.  We love to claim this promise and all of the blessings it includes.

Have you read this in context?  In the sentence right before this, God is telling the Israelites that they would be in Babylon for seventy years and THEN he would come and do all that he had promised.

70 years!

Not 1 year, or even 10 years!  70 years!

We want it now, don’t we?  If not today, then tomorrow will have to do.  So often God asks for our obedience first and THEN he arrives with his blessing.  He was doing this with the Israelites in Jeremiah’s time and he’s doing this with us right now in our time.

First we obey and THEN we experience God’s pleasure with our lives.

Dear Father, please help us obey you today so that we might live in your blessing….we trust that your timing is always perfect.

The Israelites remembered that God was their rock in Psalm 78 and that he had redeemed them

But all they gave him was lip service.

Their hearts were not loyal to him.

Just giving God lip service………like-

Often telling people we’ll pray for them but rarely talking with God on their behalf?

Wanting to read the Bible more often but not making any significant changes in our calendar to make that happen?

Always ready to talk about God to other Christians but then regularly clamming up about him when we’re around people we aren’t so sure about?

Routinely going to church on Sunday but not letting God have room to really change our lives in between?

Dear Father, we desire to give you so much more than lip service! 

Paul prayed an awesome prayer for the Colossians and I pray these same things for all of us today…..

I ask God to give us complete knowledge of his will and to give us spiritual wisdom and understanding.

May the way we live always honor and please the Lord.

It is our desire that our lives produce every kind of good fruit.

All the while, may we grow as we learn to know God better and better.

I also pray that we will be strengthened with his glorious power so we will have all the endurance and patience we need.

May we be filled with joy!

May we be always thanking the Father for enabling us to share in the inheritance that belongs to his people who live in the light.

Thank you, Father, for rescueing us from the kingdom of darkness and transferring us into the kingdom of your dear son who purchased our freedom and forgave our sin.

Amen.  Hallelujah!