Tag Archives: 1 Timothy 6

Travelling light?

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Praise the Lord, my soul; all my inmost being, praise his holy name. Praise the Lord, my soul, and forget not all his benefits – who forgives all your sins and heals all your diseases, who redeems your life from the pit and crowns you with love and compassion who satisfies your desires with good things so that your youth is renewed like the eagle’s.

As a father has compassion on his children, so the Lord has compassion on those who fear him; for he knows how we are formed, he remembers that we are dust. The life of mortals is like grass, they flourish like a flower of the field; the wind blows over it and it is gone, and its place remembers it no more. But from everlasting to everlasting the Lord’s love is with those who fear him, and his righteousness with their children’s children – and with those who keep his covenant and remember to obey his precepts.

(Ps 103 1-5&13-18)

“Do not store up for yourselves treasures on earth, where moths and vermin destroy, and where thieves break in and steal. But store up for yourselves treasures in heaven, where moths and vermin do not destroy, and where thieves do not break in and steal. For where your treasure is, there your heart will be also.

(Matt 6.19-21)

Command those who are rich in this present world not to be arrogant nor to put their hope in wealth, which is so uncertain, but to put their hope in God, who richly provides us with everything for our enjoyment. Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share. In this way they will lay up treasure for themselves as a firm foundation for the coming age, so that they may take hold of the life that is truly life.

(1 Tim 6.17-19)

In the last few years, I have moved house twice, and also been involved in clearing out houses belonging to other people. It is a sobering experience to be faced with the quantities of stuff which human beings can accumulate, and the result for me has been a strong desire to reduce my personal quota of earthly treasures, and thus the burden which will fall on someone else when I am gone! As a believer in Jesus, one whose life is already established in the kingdom of God, I have full confidence that I can lack nothing which I need. I also know that I will take nothing with me into glory! How then, will I choose to live in the meantime? What is my attitude to the belongings which I cart about the world with me?

I want to live with open hands, in full and regular acknowledgment that it is from God alone that my security and comfort comes, not from my things. I want to recognise and give thanks for the gifts which I receive from God through the kindness of others, and their care for me.

I am not preaching some severe message of austerity, nor even of total minimalism, just wanting to explore what it means for me to live lightly, gratefully, and expectantly, not continually dragged back into the past or weighed down by possessions and the burdens they present. I think it was the late Mahatma Ghandi who encouraged people to “Live simply so that others may simply live”, and that idea – taken together with William Morris’ dictum, “Have nothing in your houses that you do not know to be useful or believe to be beautiful”, creates a useful base for me as I sort through cupboards, boxes and the forgotten heaps lurking in corners.

Missionary folk who have to move house, across continents, regularly, have learnt this lesson, and know that they can let go of possessions, even precious ones, and yet know joy and peace, and thankfulness! I don’t want to be afraid of letting things go in the future, so I need to practise doing it now.

I have found that the hardest things to dispose of are the personal ones – the birthday cards, the scrawled childhood drawings, the photographs…. They remind me of times and people, which is a good thing; but that doesn’t mean I need to keep them! I am particularly keen to foster in myself an attitude of expectation, not of reluctance. As a child of God, whose future is secure in glory, in a life and realm which is good and beautiful, productive and satisfying beyond my imagination, I want to nurture hope and not to keep harking back to ‘the good old days’, which may indeed have been lovely, but which will not bear comparison to what is in store for me. The best is truly yet to come, why then should I regret the past?

Dear Father, I am so thankful that you know me through and through, and you are full of compassion and love for me and every one of your children. Thank you for all the good things which you have blest me with down the years.

Help me to be grateful, over and over again, and to let go of the stuff which ties us to the past. Stir up in me a hunger for you, and as I grow older, let me become more and not less expectant of the wonderful life which lies ahead, where there will be no partings, no grief, no need to keep things to help me to remember!

Let me carry with me only the deepest gratitude for all your kindness, most of all in the saving work of Jesus my Lord, in whose name I pray, Amen.

The blessed ordinariness…

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‘The Elixir’

Teach me, my God and King, in all things thee to see,
And what I do in any thing, to do it as for thee:

Not rudely, as a beast, to runne into an action;
But still to make thee prepossest, and give it his perfection.

A man that looks on glasse, on it may stay his eye;
Or if he pleaseth, through it passe, and then the heav’n espie.

All may of thee partake: nothing can be so mean,
Which with his tincture (for thy sake) will not grow bright and clean.

A servant with this clause makes drudgerie divine:
Who sweeps a room, as for thy laws, makes that and th’ action fine.

This is the famous stone that turneth all to gold:
For that which God doth touch and own cannot for lesse be told.

(George Herbert, 1593-1633)

My heart is not proud, Lord, my eyes are not haughty; I do not concern myself with great matters or things too wonderful for me. But I have calmed and quieted myself, I am like a weaned child with its mother; like a weaned child I am content.

Israel, put your hope in the Lord both now and for evermore.

(Ps 131)

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that.

(1 Tim 6.6-8)

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for human masters, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

(Col 3.23&24)

I am in a season of uncertainty and shadows, besieged by questions and easily distressed by the normal challenges and little problems which we each face daily. I am drawn to the small daily responsibilities which are my privilege, and reminded that in everything we are and do, we are offering ourselves in worship to the Lord. The poem with which I began today is not particularly easy to read, the language is antique, but I would encourage you to take a little time to ponder its meaning. It has always brought me great comfort in seasons like this – when all I seem able to cope with are the small things of life.

My attitude to my tasks – whether it be washing dishes, cleaning bathrooms, weeding and tidying the garden, taking time to listen to friends and share their lives for a time, sending birthday cards and connecting with family – speaks of my attitude to the opportunity of my life. It is God’s daily gift to me, a fresh opportunity to serve Him and to love Him, seeing and giving thanks for the abundance of good things which I receive and can share with others. It is a privilege to have a house to keep, food to cook, clothes to wash and friends to meet. A garden is a wonderful opportunity to appreciate and care for creation, seeing in my small patch a little portion of the marvellous creativity of the Maker of all things.

Cultivating faithfulness to my Lord in the small ordinary things is good for me, helping me to remember that I depend on Him for everything, and that every day brings me opportunities to enjoy His goodness, His gifts, and His presence. I see the beauty in the mugs and plates we use each day – the colours delight my eyes. I feel the warmth of the clothes which cover me, and am grateful for the skill of the designers and makers who bring colour and texture into each day. I taste the goodness of our food, and the fresh air delights my senses, like the light on my face and the wind in my hair. All these things can be prompts to thankfulness and worship of my God, to renewed trust in His provision for me and faith that He will not fail me tomorrow..

Heavenly Father, I thank and praise you for the daily opportunities of my life; opportunities to taste and see your goodness in creation, to receive your love for me through Jesus, and to share that love and all you give me, with others.

Help me to see you each day, to discern your voice and to obey it. Help me to cherish every opportunity to work for you, in whatever form that may come to me, offering up the work in praise and thanksgiving as I serve my Lord in loving response to his abundant love for me.

Thank you that even in the small ordinariness of life, I can know you, serve you, and glorify you, Amen

For my children..

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But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it. But if we have food and clothing, we will be content with that…the love of money is a root of all kinds of evil. Some people, eager for money, have wandered from the faith and pierced themselves with many griefs. 

But you, man of God, flee from all this, and pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, endurance and gentleness. Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called when you made your good confession in the presence of many witnesses.

(1Timothy 6.6-12)

Nearly twenty two years ago, I was safely – and belatedly – delivered of a son, a precious gift and source of great joy and contentment, as well as not a little grief and anxiety over the years of his growing! Four years ago, he left home, first for a gap year, and then to university. There he thrives, and we have had the pleasure of watching him relish every opportunity to learn; every friendship which has come his way; and above all, of seeing him grow in faith, seeking to reach his community with the gospel. He is a man made by and for God, and he knows his maker – a blessing which cannot be quantified, and one which every christian parent craves for their children but cannot guarantee.

I say these things not to boast – it is none of my doing, and even as I give thanks for the blessings he has received, I yearn over the children of christian friends who as yet are choosing to walk through life without putting their faith in Christ, sitting lightly to the question of their salvation. So why talk about him at all? Because this  morning, after a week of holiday with friends here, he left me again…

Does it never get easier, this parting from the one who once was utterly dependent on me? Does the raw place where my heart was ripped from his never really heal over? I have no fear for him, and yet how sore it is when he leaves, returning to the larger life he now enjoys with friends who are so dear – in which I barely play a part – and all of life ahead of him.

The bible regularly uses the imagery of a father – or mother – to describe God’s yearning over his children, and I believe that this longing love is something that human beings experience in smaller degree. In our parenting; our nurturing of new life and raising for independent living, we experience a little of the passion with which God loves us, his beloved children, driving him to seek after and bring us to himself again. The very pain which is part of letting our children go, is a window into the heart of a tender God. How are we to use it?

I can resent the ways that God has chosen to ordain my life, separating me from my children and leading them away from me..or I can rejoice that for a little time, I was privileged to be in their lives, loving and caring for them on his behalf. They were his before they were ever mine, and if I remember that, then I can take comfort even as I watch them go – God’s love for them is so much greater than I can ever imagine, and they can be in no better place than the centre of his will for them.

I can follow the example of Paul, who though not the human father of Timothy, yet wrote tenderly to that young man, calling him a dear son, and addressing many earnest and loving words of advice to him. Paul does not caution Timothy to look out for his own interests, but challenges him to the highest calling – a life devoted to God, in which those qualities of godliness, love, endurance, faith, gentleness and righteousness are always growing stronger.

Who knows what this will look like in real life? A calling to full-time christian service; to overseas mission or ministry in this country? A life lived in an increasingly secular and hostile society, bearing faithful witness to the rebuke and challenge as well as the offer of the gospel? A life of single chastity, or marriage and parenthood? A life blessed with good health, or plagued by illness?

I cannot tell, and I thank God that I do not know. But I can and do pray for my children – and for their friends, the precious young lives which come into contact with mine – that their faith will be in Christ alone; that their will to obey might be fixed; and that they might live to glorify and serve the God who made them for such a time as this.