Pastor Barry's  "Chapter & Verse"  2024  Day 141

May 20;       2 Timothy 1:12;        197/260;        ‘I Am Persuaded’

2 Timothy 1:12 For this reason I also suffer these things; nevertheless I am not ashamed, for I know whom I have believed and am persuaded that He is able to keep what I have committed to Him until that Day.

Paul tells us in verse 11 that he was appointed by the Lord to be a preacher, an apostle and a teacher of the gentiles.  Because of the incredible assignment the Lord has given Paul, he understands that he ‘is a target’ that the devil would try to stop.  This is just a truth of the ministry.  If you are born again, but do little or nothing to do the work of the Lord and share your faith, you are no threat to the devil.  Because we are a Christian, there should be a determination to continue the ministry of Jesus Christ.  This is what makes life exciting and enables us to fulfill the will of the Lord for our lives.  As believers, we all have been called to seek the Lord, finding out His will for our lives and then doing it.  Will there be opposition?  Surely there will be.  As the devil could not stop the Apostle Paul, the devil cannot stop you.  The Bible teaches us that greater is He who is in us (the Holy Spirit) that he that is in the world (I John 4:4).  Paul reveals in 2 Corinthians 11 what he went through.  Nothing could stop him.  When you are in the perfect will of God, as Paul was, the persecution of the devil, though it is real, did not stop Paul, nor can it stop you if there is determination on your part to do the Lord’s work.  Peter and John were beaten by the religious leaders for healing the crippled man at a gate going into the temple, using the Name of Jesus.  The Bible says that they rejoiced, being counted worthy to suffer shame for our Lord.  Is ministry a challenge, it has to be because of its importance.  Our greatest joy.