Sail On

DEVOTION
1 TIMOTHY
SAIL ON
1 Tim 1:18-20
18 Timothy, my son, I give you this instruction in keeping with the prophecies once made about you, so that by following them you may fight the good fight, 19 holding on to faith and a good conscience. Some have rejected these and so have shipwrecked their faith. 20 Among them are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan to be taught not to blaspheme. NIV

I am not sure if any prophecies were ever made about me, at least here on earth. Perhaps there were some made in heaven I am unaware of, or maybe I am aware of them and dare not speak of them to any of my friends or enemies. In either case I too have been given instructions that might very well be in keeping with those heaven made prophecies concerning me. Now I also think each and every believer has been given instructions as well which are in keeping with some prophecy made either here or there concerning them. I dare not think I would be the only one who had been prophesied about as Timothy was. Nevertheless in following the instructions laid out for me within the holy text I am able to fight the good fight. I am able to not only battle against the outward foes who are bend on my destruction but also that old inward foe who seeks to regain control. As I watch the news seeing extreme Islam bend on destroying Israel, I think of the my extreme enemy who is bend on the destruction of the true Israel, those who are circumcised in the heart, of which I am one. So I suit up with the armor of God and stand firm upon the battlefield of life, facing my fears, facing my enemy, not giving him my back, but staring him down with my shield of faith firming before me to extinguish any of those horrible attacks of flaming arrows. But it is him who holds the shield with me; I must deal with as well. That is what my good conscience does for me as I have cleared it with my Lord for once and for all times. I have been rendered innocent and thus there is no room for guilt and shame which are the recipe of a shipwrecked faith. Those are the names of a few of those arrows shoot at my mind, but thankfully God’s helmet keeps me safe. Yet he who shares my helmet still seeks to do me harm, but he will lose for I have decided so and with God all things are possible. I will not be a shipwrecked upon the shores of no hope and despair. I will not see my life dashed upon the rocks of languishing. No, I will sail with my Lord, my captain, my commander. I will sail on in accordance with those words spoken of me by God.