Hello, and welcome back to Tabernacle Tidbits.
Today, we are in 2 Timothy 1 and verse number 3, where the Apostle Paul, after saying, this is who this letter is from, and he's saying who it's to, Timothy, his protege, his son in the faith, he says, I thank God, whom I serve with a clear
conscience the way my forefathers did, as I constantly remember you in my prayers night and day. What can we learn from this verse? Number one, Paul starts off with thanksgiving for Timothy. Who are you glad about?
Who are you thankful for in your Christian walk? Is there a person that has been a mentor to you in the faith? Is there a person that has been maybe like Timothy was to Paul?
Has there been someone that you've kind of brought along? Maybe you gave someone their first Bible? I can think of a couple of my friends at Tabernacle right at the moment.
There was one lady that one of our church members had been witnessing to for several years and she had just never taken kind of that next step in accepting the Lord.
She did so this past year and I can think that every time that church member thinks of her friend, she's always thanking God for that person. Who are you thankful for? And do you express that, number one, to God?
And do you express it to the other person, that you're thankful for them, that you're grateful for them?
I can think in so many scenarios our world is a thankless, a great, gratefulness-less place, that people are angry consistently, they're complaining constantly, and really what we need is more gratitude, more thanks.
And so let's do that, just as Paul did, he thanks God, and he says, Who might serve with a clear conscience the way my forefathers did? This is an interesting thought that here Paul is saying, like, I know that I have messed up in my life.
I know that I've done things that I should not have. There were ways in which I treated other people with cruelty. There were ways that I, in an attempt to do what I thought was right, I did wrong.
He says, but I did it with a clear conscience. There was no point in which the inside voice is going, Hey, you shouldn't be doing that. And I did not listen.
Many people frankly have, as Paul would tell us in other portions of scripture, they have seared their conscience with a hot iron. That is, they have told their conscience no so many times.
Every time it's been like, I shouldn't say that, I shouldn't do that, I shouldn't go there, I shouldn't be with these people. We've just shut down what our consciences have told us so many times that then we can't even hear that voice anymore.
And that's not a permanent state.
Thankfully, what scripture tells us is that we can renew our minds, we can renew our conscience so that we are no longer who we once were, unfeeling and unnoticing when the Holy Spirit is using our conscience to convict us of sin or of good things,
of righteousness that we should be pursuing. And how do we do that? We do that through consistently being in the Word of God, through asking the Lord to renew our conscience, through being around other people who will help form our conscience.
That is, they will tell us when something is bad. They will tell us when we've said something off color. They would tell us when we've made a poor decision, that it would help, if you will, build back up our conscience.
And that's a valuable thing to do. And then the last thing he says here, he says, in addition to the way my forefathers did, that he realizes, I've come in a long line of people that have believed in God. I'm not the first person around.
And so, that's something that he remarks. You remember that, too. You're not the world's first Christian.
You won't be the last. Then he says, as I constantly remember you in my prayers, night and day, praying for other people is one of the most valuable things that we can do.
And I'd encourage you, one great way to consistently pray for people is to have a prayer list and to be praying through that. And then let people know that you're praying for them. And specifically, like, let them know what you're asking God for.
Not just, God bless them, but something specific. Like, I'm praying that God would provide for your needs. I'm praying that God would help you as you parent.
I'm praying that God would help you as you're looking for a spouse. And as we pray specific prayers, we can see God answer in specific ways. So I want to encourage you in that way.
Thanks for tuning in. Tomorrow we will look at verse number four.
