faith, love, peace with those who call on the Lord
out of a pure heart.” (2 Timothy 2:22 NKJV)
God never
asks us to remove something from our lives without giving us something good to
replace it with (take note of Ephesians 4 and Colossians 3 “put off…” followed
by “put on…”). In our theme verse, we are told to run from youthful lusts and
instead run toward righteousness, faith, love, and peace. It is important that
we understand what we are running toward in order to keep our determination
focused on the goal.
Side note:
The King James Version uses the word “follow” in 2 Timothy 2:22, but I like how
the New King James Version uses the word “pursue.” “Follow” feels to me
unintentional without thought, coincidental even (although it does not mean
that), you are simply following someone down a hall, for example, but “pursue”
is ripe with intention and purpose, you are pursuing someone down a hall, you
fully determine to get to them!
We are to
PURSUE righteousness.
Righteousness
is ‘equity of character or act.’ ‘Equity of character’ is to possess all good
qualities (of God, His attributes) in perfect balance.
God is just while still possessing compassion and mercy. God is kind but His disposition toward sin will never be altered. God is love, but His love never undermines His Truth.
For example: 2 Peter 3:9 “[God] is longsuffering toward
us, not willing that any should perish (His love for us), but that all should
come to repentance” – His truth states that we will perish if we do not repent
and submit to Him (see Romans 2:2-11). His love offers us hope, but we have a
responsibility toward Him in order to have salvation.
All that
God is is in perfect balance! We should always be striving to be like Him in
all things (1 Peter 1:13-16, 1 John 3:1-3), striving to conduct ourselves with
that same balance.
How
important is it that we pursue righteousness?
Consider
Matthew 6:33:
and His righteousness, and all
these things will be added to you."
(NKJV)
Seek FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness. Above all else, seek Him and His righteousness. It’s THAT important!
What are
the things that will be added to you when you seek first God and His
righteousness? See verse 31 – you will have life’s necessities: food, drink,
and clothing. With these things you can be content (please read 1 Timothy
6:6-8) and you will not have to worry, God WILL provide. God blesses His
children with what we need each day; that is why verse 34 states the command
“Therefore do not worry about tomorrow, for tomorrow will worry about its own
things. Sufficient for today is its own trouble.”
When we
trust God to provide the necessities of life for us each day as we humbly seek
and serve Him, we will soon realize that He also provides us with wisdom and
strength to get through our day. When we realize that, we will not worry about
tomorrow because we will know that if God grants us a new day, with that new
day He will also grant us renewed strength and ability (Psalm 103:1-5, Isaiah
40:28-31, Lamentations 3:22-26) to use in that day.
A woman
seeking FIRST the kingdom of God and His righteousness, will not worry about
tomorrow. She will not borrow trouble from some future day - destroying the
peace of her “today” – she will instead trust wholly in God, knowing He will be
there in any tomorrow she may be granted. She will bless God and praise Him for
the blessings He grants her today, her heart will overflow with thanksgiving
and her mind will be guarded with peace (Philippians 4:6-8).
God loves
us! He is full of lovingkindness. He asks us to seek Him first. With each day
we are given, let us do just that! And at the end of each day, let our hearts
praise Him for the strength, wisdom, and ability He gave us to get through the
day – He is forever faithful! Let us be forever faithful in our pursuit of
being like Him, in our pursuit of being found right in His sight, in our
pursuit of righteousness!
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