November 7, 2024 -- I Timothy 1:18-20 -- What do you really believe about yourself? Now who are you in Jesus?

This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, 19 holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith, 20 among whom are Hymenaeus and Alexander, whom I have handed over to Satan that they may learn not to blaspheme.
I Timothy 1:18-20 ESV
 
Dear family in the Lord Jesus Christ, off and on through these regular devotions we have been walking the path of the Overcomer’s 12 steps. This is material I teach in one Federal Prison and one Provincial Jail. The 12-Step material is the foundation of Alcoholics Anonymous, and the original material was Bible-based. Overcomers has adapted the steps so that they do, once again, reflect a Christian-based recovery. Those who do not have problems with alcohol, or drugs, things usually linked with 12-step programs do, still, have life-controlling issues, or sins. It can be gluttony. Or anger. Gossip. Sexually motivated sins. The fact is, Christians must, daily, struggle against their sin nature. 
 
Step One
I admit I am powerless over the issue controlling my life.
 
Step Two
I acknowledge my belief that God, the source of all power, restores me on my journey to freedom from addictions and life-controlling issues.
 
Step Three
I decide to submit my life to the care of God as he guides me.
 
That third step is today’s focus. On Day 20 of the Overcomer’s Workbook, the student reads
     What we do is always rooted in what we believe. When we are
     stuck in a pattern of doing things that harm us, it is because of
     how we think about ourselves, our actions, and our worth. If
     you believe you are not worthy of safety or that you deserve the
     pain you are experiencing, you will not be as motivated to find
     a way out of your circumstances.
Overcomers Workbook, Day 20, page 49
 
Look at the dynamite of Scripture. It explodes all your false beliefs about yourself and then reveals who you are in Christ. Timothy had prophesies spoken over him. You have the eternal decree of God—from before the creation of the world, God chose you in the Beloved, Jesus. You are precious, chosen of God.
 
God has given you the Holy Spirit as a guarantee of this new life. You do not have to go back to the old sins, the former patterns of wickedness. You are not captive in Satan’s prison, you are now alive in Christ and have a freedom that is new to you, wonderful, and kept for you in heaven. This fact is sure because Jesus, the Captain of your Salvation, is seated at the Father’s right hand, praying for you. He is guarding your new life in the throne-room of power, where the Devil can never snatch you from the embrace of the Father.
 
On the basis, not of your success or failure in walking with God, but on the basis of Jesus’s perfect life, His sinlessness, so that He is the accepted sacrifice before God, the One that atones for all your sins—past, present, and future—you have confidence to rethink who you are. You are not defeated. You are no longer in the domain of darkness, the Father has through Jesus, brought you out of the darkness and placed you in the Kingdom of the Son He loves. He Who is mighty has the power, the will and the love necessary to guard you in your new life.
 
You fight your battles by praising God. Sounds weird, right? The weapons of our warfare are not ordinary, human tools. But as we sing to God, blessing and praising Him, our minds are conformed to the newness of life that is ours in Christ. As we pray to God, the Spirit, Who guards this deposit of new-life-in-Christ within us, engages our attention, our mind, our action and our soul so that we turn away from sin and towards Jesus. By the way, that is why I almost always link a Christian hymn or song to these devotions. To encourage you to explore your walk with God through music. Learning these hymns and spiritual songs displaces the all-too-influential blather of the worldly music that is currently infesting your mind and the more you listen the more it is corrupting your soul.
 
Holding faith means you examine your words, your thoughts, the actions you are about to undertake and ask yourself, is this what a soldier of Jesus would do? I am a soldier in Jesus’s army. If what I am doing is wrong, ask yourself “Why would I fight for the Devil, who hates me and seeks to destroy my life?” The wily old Devil holds up shiny charms to distract you and hisses out lying promises to get you to collude with him. Every single time he speaks, he lies. According to Jesus, lies are his native language. So, holding onto your faith, you expose the lies of Satan that have long deceived you so that you are heart, soul, mind, and body serving Jesus.
 
Be warned. There are many all around you, people who seemed to be faithful and true, who make a shipwreck of their faith. In Timothy’s day there was the example of Hymenaeus and Alexander. No doubt you can think of people who seemed to be doing fine, acted like those who are members of the family of God, and then one day went rogue and started firing against their own side. How do you know you are not, like them, about to go rogue? Well, you hate your sin. You feel convicted when you commit them. You experience shame before God and want to be cleansed.
 
Today, tear down the lies that would hold you captive. You have decided to submit your life to the care of God as He guides you. Then let Him guide you. Ask the Holy Spirit for help. Stay close to Christian friends who keep you accountable. Change the music you are listening to and get connected with some good, Christian music that burrows deep into your soul so that you are motivated to find a way out of your circumstances through the overcoming victory that is already yours through Jesus, the Pioneer and Perfector of your faith.
 
God, all too often I can’t seem to lift my eyes to You. I know I’ve failed. Again. I confess to You, I have failed too many times to count. Jesus, You promised You are a doctor for those in need. Like a doctor You have been sent by the compassion of the Father to minister His healing to those who are sick of heart, mind and soul. Jesus, heal me. Spirit, lead me from the ruins of my past and the smoldering wreck I make of my life and bring me to the fortress of Jesus’s redeeming grace. Lead me my whole life through. Amen.
 
https://youtu.be/QPX5tt480Q8?si=5zqCKtgtrBhxKI1D “Lead Me, Guide Me”
 

Copyright © 2024 Sh'ma Christian Ministries, All rights reserved.