I remember taking trips with my parents when I was really young. At that age, I was not aware of the time it was taking to make the trip. The only words I seemed to know were, “are we almost there yet?” My father would say the same thing each time I asked the question: “we’re closer than we were.” After a good nap, we would come to our destination. We would get out of the car and you could tell what everyone was thinking. “Finally, we made it.”
Friday night (or Saturday morning) at midnight a lot of people probably thought the same thing about the new year. “Finally, we made it.” 2021 was a year a lot of people were glad is gone. There was a lot of pain and loss, a lot of struggles and questions. I’m sure there are not a lot of people sad to see the old year pass and the new year come. While we may not know what the new year has in store for us, we can all rest assured that the God who brought us through last year, is the same God to journey with us through 2022.
If you were with us on Sunday, you remember I talked about our sermon series for January. During the month, I will be talking about different reminders we find in the book of 2 Timothy. It is the second letter Paul wrote to his friend and fellow minister. This past Sunday I talked about the reminder that we have the power within us to love others. Loving is hard, especially when we are challenged to love those who hurt us, whether it is emotional or physical. There are different types of love and we talked about those on Sunday as well. While it is hard to love, it does not take away the fact that we are called to love.
The other thing Paul reminded Timothy was he had the power through the Holy Spirit to have self-discipline, or grow in his relationship with God. It’s pretty easy to find reasons as to why we aren’t growing in Christ. We can say other people get in the way of our growing, or we can judge whether or not someone else’s growth is real. The fact of the matter is that growing in Christ is up to each individual. We have to decide whether or not we want to do the things necessary to grow closer to Christ. Whether it is attending church or reading our Bibles. Doing these things is up to each of us.
We all need reminders when it comes to living the Christian lifestyle. We know what to do because we know what God’s word says. However, it is never a bad thing to be reminded what to do. I hope you make it a point this month to attend worship, either in person or on-line, as we see the important reminders from 2 Timothy. Until next week…
Peace and Blessings… Johnny
