Transcribed by Beluga AI.
Let me read the text and then we will share what the Lord has spoken to us.
2 Timothy 2:3-7. Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. An athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. It is a hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
3 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. (2 Timothy 2:3-7, ESV)
Let’s pray. Father, it seems so straightforward, but we don’t want to rely upon our own understanding. We lean upon you, Lord. Holy Spirit, teach us, anoint us. Give us understanding. We need your help. Have your way, Lord, in this time, in Jesus’ Name we pray, Amen.
So we have a lot of Bible students and teachers here. A lot of spirit-filled brothers and sisters. So what did the Lord do tell you? And maybe you’ve studied this text before.
What did the Lord tell you? And to have understanding. Maybe he brought other verses to memory with similar imagery or metaphor.
So does anybody have something that they’d like to share? This is how I prepare for sermons. I have a question and I just sit on it. And I just sit on it. I sit on it. This one, I thought I understood it and then I sat on it, didn’t understand, and I kept asking the Lord.
I know it’s not fair that I’m asking you after 30 seconds or a minute, but does anything jump out? Or does another passage come to mind to help understand this passage? Well, may the Lord speak. I think I have some understanding, but I’m not sure. So I was hoping someone would share something, but let’s just get into it.
Let’s start with 2 Peter 1:3 to review.
His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire.
For this reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love.
For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from the former sins.
Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election. For if you practice these qualities, you will never fall. In this way, there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ.
Therefore, I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have.
3 His divine power has granted to us all things that pertain to life and godliness, through the knowledge of him who called us to his own glory and excellence, 4 by which he has granted to us his precious and very great promises, so that through them you may become partakers of the divine nature, having escaped from the corruption that is in the world because of sinful desire. 5 For this very reason, make every effort to supplement your faith with virtue, and virtue with knowledge, 6 and knowledge with self-control, and self-control with steadfastness, and steadfastness with godliness, 7 and godliness with brotherly affection, and brotherly affection with love. 8 For if these qualities are yours and are increasing, they keep you from being ineffective or unfruitful in the knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. 9 For whoever lacks these qualities is so nearsighted that he is blind, having forgotten that he was cleansed from his former sins. 10 Therefore, brothers, be all the more diligent to confirm your calling and election, for if you practice these qualities you will never fall. 11 For in this way there will be richly provided for you an entrance into the eternal kingdom of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. 12 Therefore I intend always to remind you of these qualities, though you know them and are established in the truth that you have. (2 Peter 1:3-12, ESV)
So for those who have been here, can we from memory, can we recite the eight qualities that we are supposed to make every effort to supplement? So, number one, let’s say it all together. Faith. Number two. Virtue. Number three. Knowledge. Number four. Self Control. Number five. Steadfastness. Number six. Godliness. Number seven. Brotherly Affection. Number eight. Love.
If we make every effort to put on these eight qualities, we will be very fruitful in our knowledge of our Lord Jesus Christ. But if we don’t put these eight qualities on, then we risk becoming nearsighted, blind, forgetting that we’ve been forgiven of our former sins and having no confidence that we’re going to be welcomed into the kingdom of God.
I hope we put these eight qualities to memory, and we, throughout this year, make every effort to grow in these eight areas. Also, this is just a way of review. It’s not a solo act that we’re doing this. It’s with God’s power, his divine nature. We’re not doing this alone, but we’re doing this with Jesus Christ, with God’s power. So God does his part, we do our part, make every effort in these eight qualities. God does the rest.
2 Peter was Peter’s last letter.
For me, if somebody has a letter that he’s highlighting at the end of his life, because God already told him, your days are numbered, your life is coming to an end, the Holy Spirit had told Peter that. So I will pay very close attention to Peter’s last words, because they are very important.
It happened in A.D. 64-67, exactly at the same time, the Holy Spirit confirmed this message through the Apostle Paul as well. He wrote his final letter, also imprisoned in Rome, 2 Timothy.
The similar themes we covered that last week in a nutshell, he’s saying, hold on to the true teaching, which you’ve heard from the beginning, you’ve heard from me many times. Here’s the true gospel, here’s Jesus, hold on to him and watch out for all the heretics, all the false teachers. That’s in a nutshell.
2 Peter, 2 Timothy. We’re going to wrap up this study of these two letters with this imagery of soldier, athlete and farmer. And we tried our best to practice what it says. It says, think over what I say, verse 7, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything.
7 Think over what I say, for the Lord will give you understanding in everything. (2 Timothy 2:7, ESV)
Similar to when Jesus spoke in parables. Nobody had any idea what Jesus had just preached. The crowds didn’t understand. Even the disciples who knew Jesus well didn’t understand what the parable was about. But in private, they went to Jesus and said. They asked a series of questions like, what did you mean by this? And Jesus explained.
And we wonder, obviously Paul knew more. Obviously Peter knew more. Obviously they could have written more. Why did they leave it like this? And instead it’s like, why don’t you figure it out? It says in 1 John, nobody needs a teacher. You don’t need me to teach you this because you have the Holy Spirit. You ask the Holy Spirit, you just keep asking Jesus Christ and the Spirit of Christ, what does this mean? And you just sit on it until the answer comes.
First is verse 3, share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus.
3 Share in suffering as a good soldier of Christ Jesus. (2 Timothy 2:3, ESV)
And then he goes into the three metaphors. And so the overarching verse that applies to all three, I think, is verse three: share in Christ’s suffering. And now he says, as a good soldier of Christ, and he talks about soldier, athlete, and farmer.
So we got to think about the life of Jesus. How did he suffer? We think of suffering as usually the Passion Week, the suffering of the cross. But his whole life can be described as suffering. First, suffering of waiting for 30 years. And you know you’re the Son of God, but your time hasn’t come.
And you’re just sitting there waiting, being faithful, being a carpenter. Nobody knows who you are, and you’re deliberately just waiting for God’s green light. That’s a form of suffering.
Then to come out and say, I am the Son of God and to perform miracles, and to be rejected by his brothers like Jude and James, who later would write letters that made it into Scripture because they became believers. To be rejected by everybody in your family, in your hometown of Nazareth, that’s a form of suffering.
Then as you are gaining prominence in your ministry, all the religious people, out of jealousy and hatred, saying you’re a heretic and wanting to kill you and wanting to silence you, that’s all suffering.
And Jesus is inviting all of us into his suffering. Share in my suffering, soldier of Christ. No soldier, verse four, gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him.
4 No soldier gets entangled in civilian pursuits, since his aim is to please the one who enlisted him. (2 Timothy 2:4, ESV)
Salvation came when the Father drew you to the Son and Jesus went looking for you as one of his sheep. And he knew you before the foundation of the world, but he knocked on the door of your heart on a particular day. It’s different for all of us. But he met you, he saved you, he enlisted you into his army.
And so Jesus is the commanding officer. And so what he says goes. We surrender our lives to him, and we listen for his voice. Because the sheep know the Shepherd’s voice. It says, we don’t get entangled in civilian pursuits. Everybody else is doing what everybody else does.
They chase their career, they do their family, they buy a house. Just everybody’s doing these civilian things. But for the Christian, we have a different calling. He’s called us out of that mundane civilian life. He’s saying, join me in this army. Listen for my voice. And the soldier of Christ is able to shut out all the noise of the expectations of society and parents and even our own voice of what we want to accomplish in this life. None of that matters. We just shut all of that out.
And as a soldier, a soldier just has to listen to the commanding officer and right away obey. That is the posture of a soldier. There’s no bargaining, there’s no back and forth. When the commanding officer says, get up, you get up. When the commanding officer says, we’re marching into battle, you march into battle.
There’s no bargaining, there’s no hesitating. It’s hearing and obeying because you live to please your commanding officer. And then if you live that way, at the end of your life, what will you hear from your commanding officer? He’ll say, well done, good and faithful servant.
Soldier of Christ, verse 5. The athlete is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The rules part is maybe not the best translation. I think it’s better to say if he competes lawfully according to the laws of that competition. This one is a little harder to understand.
And so we just have to ask the Lord more, what do you mean by this, the commanding officer analogy? The soldier is clear to me. This one, you just got to sit on it, like, what does it mean? Thankfully, even in this very letter, there’s more revelation. If you have eyes to see, it’s in 2 Timothy 4:6.
The imagery of the athlete. Because Paul knows this is the end of his life, he’s writing this letter to his spiritual son Timothy, a young pastor in the making. And so he says in 2 Timothy 4:6, For I’m already being poured out as a drink offering. And the time of my departure has come.
I have fought the fight, I have finished the race. I have kept the faith. Henceforth, there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous Judge, will award to me on that day. And not only to me, but also to all who have loved his appearing.
6 For I am already being poured out as a drink offering, and the time of my departure has come. 7 I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith. 8 Henceforth there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord, the righteous judge, will award to me on that day, and not only to me but also to all who have loved his appearing. (2 Timothy 4:6-8, ESV)
Even verse seven, I think you can say there seems to be a parallel. The good fight is a soldier. I have finished the race. The athlete, I have kept the faith. Something to do with the farmer. Hold that thought.
But this athlete is running hard for a crown. What kind of crown? A crown of righteousness. And everybody who loved his appearing, loved Jesus and every time he showed up, loved that connection with Jesus, loved that meeting and encounter with Jesus. Anybody who loved this, the crown of righteousness awaits for you and me.
So how can we attain this crown of righteousness then? We just keep asking, Lord, how can I attain this crown of righteousness? This is according to God’s laws. So does it mean I just need to become an expert of the law and try in my flesh to obey all the laws?
Didn’t the Pharisees do that? Didn’t the scribes do that? Didn’t all the people in Jesus’s day do that? But did they have a crown of righteousness awaiting them? Although they were experts of the law and they tried their best to obey it, did they have a crown awaiting them?
I don’t think so. How do we as Christians obtain this crown of righteousness as an athlete? Habakkuk 2:4, Romans 1:17 gives us the answer.
The righteous will live by his faith. Galatians 3:11. Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law. For the righteous shall live by faith.
11 Now it is evident that no one is justified before God by the law, for “The righteous shall live by faith.” (Galatians 3:11, ESV)
The law keeping approach, the legalistic approach, the religious approach, doesn’t, will not, does not lead to a crown; it only leads to hell.
We cannot, through our own moralistic effort, attain righteousness. It’s only by faith and trust in Jesus Christ.
It says in Hebrews 10:35, therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God, you may receive what is promised.
Yet for a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay. But my Righteous one shall live by faith. And if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.
But we are not those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their Souls.
35 Therefore do not throw away your confidence, which has a great reward. 36 For you have need of endurance, so that when you have done the will of God you may receive what is promised. 37 For, “Yet a little while, and the coming one will come and will not delay; 38 but my righteous one shall live by faith, and if he shrinks back, my soul has no pleasure in him.” 39 But we are not of those who shrink back and are destroyed, but of those who have faith and preserve their souls. (Hebrews 10:35-39, ESV)
And then 1 Corinthians 9, I think, really just wraps it up for us. 1 Corinthians 9:24.
Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run, that you may obtain it. Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.
24 Do you not know that in a race all the runners run, but only one receives the prize? So run that you may obtain it. 25 Every athlete exercises self-control in all things. They do it to receive a perishable wreath, but we an imperishable.(1 Corinthians 9:24-25, ESV)
So I do not run aimlessly, I do not box as one beating the air, but I discipline my body and keep it under control. Lest after preaching to others, I myself should be disqualified.
26 So I do not run aimlessly; I do not box as one beating the air. 27 But I discipline my body and keep it under control, lest after preaching to others I myself should be disqualified. (1 Corinthians 9:26-27, ESV)
So this running toward a crown of righteousness through faith in Jesus Christ means God does His part. We are not righteous. Jesus is righteous. We believe in Jesus. At the same time, we grow into righteousness through Christ, the divine nature.
God’s power is available to us. We partake in this righteousness of Christ. It becomes ours. But it requires this self-control. That’s why in the list of 2 Peter 1, I think the first one that we should wrestle with is self-control.
There’s a lot of things that an athlete does that a non-athlete doesn’t have to do. A non-athlete can eat whatever they want, can take breaks whenever they want. But an athlete is focused, is disciplined. It says no to a lot of things because they know they’re preparing for a race.
And so there is self-control. It’s not just faith in Jesus. And now I don’t do anything. No, there’s a lot on our end. We beat our body as Paul did. We discipline ourselves, we strain and we do things. But that’s not what saves us.
Jesus saves us. So it’s righteousness, it’s trust in Jesus. But his righteousness becomes ours as we exercise self-control. 2 Timothy 2:22 explains more. So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace.
22 So flee youthful passions and pursue righteousness, faith, love, and peace, along with those who call on the Lord from a pure heart. (2 Timothy 2:22, ESV)
And then we lastly we look at the farmer. 2 Timothy 2:6. It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops.
6 It is the hard-working farmer who ought to have the first share of the crops. (2 Timothy 2:6, ESV)
This one also is a difficult one. But God gives us a little bit of help. In the book of James, chapter 5, verse 7: Be patient in long suffering. Therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it until it receives the early and the late rains.
You also be patient, long suffering. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged. Behold, the judge is standing at the door as an example of suffering and patience.
Brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. Behold, we consider those blessed who remain steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful.
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. 10 As an example of suffering and patience, brothers, take the prophets who spoke in the name of the Lord. 11 Behold, we consider those blessed who remained steadfast. You have heard of the steadfastness of Job, and you have seen the purpose of the Lord, how the Lord is compassionate and merciful. (James 5:7-11, ESV)
If you’re going to do any kind of gardening, the quality you need the most is patience. Because you can’t plant something and expect to eat it the next day. You got to do a lot of work to prepare the soil, to break up the rocks, to just water it, to put fertilizer, to put compost, to make sure the worm composting is not dead.
You got to get that going. You got to pour the black juice and the soil upon the garden plant. There’s a lot of effort. You got to trim the dead parts, you got to leave the living parts to blossom. And it requires patience. And this hard working farmer is described as toil.
Where else do you hear the word toil? I think it’s an echo of Genesis 3, the curse. All of Adam’s effort is toil. So I think this is looking at the whole of your life like the athlete. We’re not looking for a sprint; we’re looking at the marathon. The whole of your life, the farmer, you’re looking at the whole of your life.
The whole of your life is described as toil, hard labor, wearisome, difficult. It’s the curse. It summarizes all of life. It’s hard to do life here, isn’t it? Everything is hard. Being a student is hard. Being a worker is hard. Being a boss is hard. Being a father, mother is hard. Being a child under parents is hard.
It’s hard for everybody because we’re under the curse. It’s all toil. But what is a farmer? The quality of the farmer is patience. It’s not the hard working aspect that we’re supposed to pull out. It’s the, it’s the patience and the steadfastness of the farmer.
In James 5:7, it describes patience and long suffering. The first example says, don’t grumble with your brothers, because a lot of the difficulty and toil comes from each other in a family.
7 Be patient, therefore, brothers, until the coming of the Lord. See how the farmer waits for the precious fruit of the earth, being patient about it, until it receives the early and the late rains. 8 You also, be patient. Establish your hearts, for the coming of the Lord is at hand. 9 Do not grumble against one another, brothers, so that you may not be judged; behold, the Judge is standing at the door. (James 5:7-9, ESV)
There’s a lot of toil, a lot of suffering, a lot of drama, a lot of conflict, and a lot of friction here with one another. It’s the curse. We’re all on our way to being sanctified. We’re at different places. We have to deal with immature, unsanctified people all the time.
Even in our little circle, in our family, in our church, in our just, just a little larger sphere of community that we’re in, we’re just constantly being with people. There’s a lot of, in some sense, there’s a lot of reason to grumble. But he says, don’t grumble, be patient, be patient.
And then he gives the example of the prophets. The prophets gave, thus saith the Lord, the Word of God, the truth. And what did the people do? They rejected the prophets. That’s not what I’m hearing. The synagogue, I’ll just keep going to the synagogue.
The prophets of God are always enduring suffering because of rejection from everybody. An example of Job is given. Why is he an example of faith, holding on to faith, keeping faith in the midst of suffering, not just physical? We know about all the suffering he went through.
He lost everything. He physically suffered in his body. But probably the biggest suffering, I think, is his friends, so-called friends, who give a distorted view of God while he is a righteous man holding on to questions, but still it’s a true picture of God.
He’s actually a righteous man holding on to God. Everybody else is holding on to something that’s false and preaching and looking down on poor Job.
Job is an example of patience, endurance, steadfastness in the midst of toil, suffering, grumbling, false accusation from his so-called friends. So as a farmer, we’re going to go through toil.
We’re going to go through a lot of persecution, a lot of rejection, a lot of difficulty from one another, from this world, from churchgoers, from family members who go to church, who think you’re doing Christianity wrong.
You’re going to hear these kinds of things. It just goes with the territory. Jesus says, enter into my suffering. I went through it, now why don’t you go through it with me?
All of these metaphors of the soldier, the athlete, the farmer. First, Jesus calls us, he enlists us in his army, only his voice counts. And we say, yes, Lord, whatever you say, you’re the master, I’ll do it your way. And we just hear his voice. And if you haven’t heard him for a while, it’s okay. Go back to the last thing he said.
That’s what you obey until he revises and gives you a new command. Because if your commanding officer says, watch this post, you just stay there.
So there’s times in past world wars where people were still observing their post, not knowing the war was over because they were a good soldier. Nobody told them. Their commanding officer didn’t come to them and say, oh, you’re relieved, the war is over. No.
As a faithful soldier, they heard the word from the commanding officer, the last thing they heard, and they faithfully did it to the end.
That’s the posture of a Christian. We hear Jesus’ last word to us, and we stay the course. We keep doing it faithfully until he gives us a new word. For the athlete, we’re running for a crown of righteousness. How can we be righteous? It’s through faith in Christ.
Jesus is inviting us now. Put your faith in me first. You got enlisted into my army. you’re hearing my voice now. Trust me. Just trust me. That’s how you’ll be righteous and learn from me and become like me.
Not only is righteousness so far away from you, but you too can become righteous. If you exercise some self-control and you give me your unsanctified parts of you, you also can change and become righteous.
And then the farmer. The message there is, hold on to Jesus to the end. Because you’re going to be tempted to want to throw in the towel. Because there’s a lot of toil, there’s a lot of difficulty in this life. you’re going to be tempted to want to throw in the towel.
You’re going to be tempted to slow down in your race. you’re going to be tempted to just say, can’t I just be part of the large church-going community? Why do I have to do it in this difficult way?
Jesus saying, no, hold on to me, just follow me. There’s only a few of you here, I know it. But you follow me. Hold on to me to the end, to me. That’s what the Lord is speaking through these metaphors.
And then he says in 2 Timothy 2:20, we’ll end here. Now, in a great house, there are not only vessels of gold and silver, but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable.
Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work.
20 Now in a great house there are not only vessels of gold and silver but also of wood and clay, some for honorable use, some for dishonorable. 21 Therefore, if anyone cleanses himself from what is dishonorable, he will be a vessel for honorable use, set apart as holy, useful to the master of the house, ready for every good work. (2 Timothy 2:20-21, ESV)
Two categories of vessels. And we are vessels. There’s the honorable vessels, the gold and silver, the dishonorable vessels, wood and clay. The things I would use day to day in your home for mealtime.
But when special guests and VIPs arrive, you bring out the gold, you bring out the silver. And it’s a choice. Only those who’ve been cleansed of what is dishonorable will be a vessel for honorable use. Only those who surrender their lives and set their lives apart for the Master will be ready for every good work.
There seems to be levels as I look at this. There’s a silver. I mean you’re somewhat cleansed, you’re somewhat surrendered, but you’re just a silver medalist. And you’ll be prepared for some works. But there’s the gold, the gold vessel.
And as people who run in a race, we’re not satisfied with silver or bronze. We want the gold. We’re running for the gold. We’re running for the prize. We’re running to hear the commendation from Jesus and to get the full crown, the full reward that’s due us.
It requires separation from civilian life, from common life, from mundane affairs, the wood and the clay. Everybody, the majority of people, are doing life this way. Then you separate yourself. There’s a silver medalist. You’re prepared for some good works.
Think about if you’re a gold utensil, a vessel, a weapon in the Master’s hand. Every assignment he gives you, he knows he can count on you. He knows you’re going to represent him well.
So there are things that are reserved for us as potential gold vessels that we can do every good work because we’ve been so thoroughly cleansed of all, everything that is dishonorable, everything that is common and mundane and normal for everybody else. We are held to a higher standard.
So not only do we have Jesus, righteousness here is talking about the transformation in Christ, the divine nature, that we can partake in. The power that’s available for us, that we can become righteous as Christ is righteous. Not through effort alone. It’s with Jesus’ help.
We put our faith in Jesus, and with his help, we can become righteous, and we can surrender ourselves and be a gold vessel, useful for every good work. Just something to consider for yourself. Do you want this for yourself?
Do you want to be a gold vessel in the Master’s hand, not just a private in the army? You just barely made it a four-star general. God can really use you because all the dishonorable parts of us have been cleansed. Not only Jesus’ righteousness, but it’s actually changed us. We’re actually different.
And you’re a four-star general, you’re a gold medalist. you’re a farmer that has stood the test of time, all the trials, all the difficulty, all the toil. You’re a farmer that you’re going to wake up and be consistent every single day.
You’re going to put your faith in Jesus no matter what. Even in famine, even in difficulty. you’re waking up. You show up every single day. you’re ready to fight, you’re ready to work, you’re ready to serve.
That’s a vessel of gold prepared for every good work. May that be said of all of us in this place. Okay, let’s pray.
Father, we so wish that some of the difficult verses that we read that you would just unpack every little detail. Sometimes when we come to a sermon, we want every aspect of every verse that was preached unpacked for us.
But, Lord, deliberately, you leave homework for us. In these few short verses involving suffering as a soldier of Christ, the soldier, the athlete and the farmer, you invite us to ask you, what does it mean? I don’t understand.
Even today, Lord, I don’t know if I explained it as well as I could, but Lord, I pray that you would take it from here. You would explain it, you would unpack it for us. You’re inviting us into a dialogue, a conversation to bring our questions to you about Scripture that we don’t understand, to bring situations in our life we don’t understand.
You require of us faith because the righteous will live by faith, trust in you. Even in confusing times, in difficult times, there’s a lot of toil, a lot of rejection, a lot of words, a lot of friction in our relationships.
You want us to be patient, steadfast, hold on to you as Job did until the healing came, until the breakthrough came. All of this is a metaphor for the Christian life. And at the end, there is a crown of righteousness awaiting for us. At the end, there is fruit waiting for us there.
There’s accommodation from our commanding officer waiting for us. Lord, you want us to hold on to Jesus no matter what we face, to listen for your voice and only your voice in this life. Thank you, Lord. We pray that you would meet us.
We thank you for Your Body that was broken for us at Calvary and your blood that was shed. We pray that you unpack more of the mystery of these verses and how it applies to us as soldiers of Christ. Thank you, Lord. In Jesus’ Name, we pray, Amen.