Sincere

DEVOTION
2 TIMOTHY
SINCERE
2 Tim 1:4-7
5 I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also. 6 For this reason I remind you to fan into flame the gift of God, which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7 For God did not give us a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline.
NIV
Is there such a thing as insincere faith? I suppose it is possible to actually appear to be loving toward another, but have hidden intentions of another sort. That is the implication of the Greek word used here for which is translated sincere. To have a false front of what is actually inside would be hypocrisy and I cannot allow that is my life. If I say I love, then I actually must have that love on the inside, and I am supposed to love all. That is a tough road to drive, a hard furrow to plow, a difficult mountain to climb, a long channel to swim or how every else I can describe it, simply put, a hard pill to swallow. There are just some people I am not sure I can be sincere about loving them. But that is what I should do. I know it say that in Roman 12 as well, that love must be sincere, and be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Putting the others needs before my own is the action of this kind of love and that has to be sincere. If I have wrong motives, maybe no one would notice, but God would. If I am going to live to please him, I have to comply. The question of course is why I would not have that in my heart, this sincere love for others. Why would I have to only appear to love? Would that be because I really do not have that love in my heart? I cannot believe that. Yes, I do have difficulty with some people, but I think for the most part I can say my love is sincere, but it such be for the all part. Now as far as fanning into flames the gift of God I have received, certainly not by the laying on of hands by Paul, but by the infilling of the Spirit, I think I have been doing. Maybe I need to fan more and get a raging fire going. Sometime, I think I do get distracted from the calling on my life. I think I am a little backwards and actually a little fearful of getting out there fanning bigger flames. I though the Spirit would see to it my gift was used, but maybe I have to be engaged in the fanning, or promoting of the gift in my life. That is one more even harder pill to shallow. This is tough stuff for me to consider. I know I should not be ashamed to testify, but I am getting ahead of my own devotion, that is next. It does come down to what God has giving me. He did not give me this spirit of timidity. He gave me a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. I must be about my Father’s business. I must get out there and do it, get the thoughts he has instilled in me out in the hearts and minds others, for that is what he has called me to do, gifted me to do, and given me the power to do it, and my motive has to be out of love for others, not for my own aggrandizement. That is where the self-discipline comes in. It does all come back to sincere.