When No One Stands With You | 2 Tim. 4:16-17
September 7, 2023
Food For Thought For September 7, 2023
When No One Stands With You | 2 Timothy 4:16-17
Read This Passage: 2 Timothy 4:9-1816 At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. 17 But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me, so that the message might be preached fully through me, and that all the Gentiles might hear. Also I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion.
2 Timothy 4:16-17 NKJV
In his second later to Timothy, Paul could feel that his time on earth was nearing its end. This was a man who, at first, persecuted the church, but after hearing from the Lord, labored like no other for the Lord. “At my first defense,” is Paul speaking of being on trial – whether it was the first trial he had in Rome or his final trial. Whichever he is referencing, the point is that there was nobody there standing with him; Paul was all alone… or so he thought!
Something that we believers must come to understand is that we are never truly alone. I think that this can be hard for us to understand at times because we are so absorbed in the physical. Yet, the truth is that the Holy Spirit is always with those that genuinely believe in the Lord. Because the Holy Spirit is God, I want you to understand that God is always with you wherever you go, and through whatever it is you may be going through.
Paul tells Timothy that even though he was physically alone, he had strength because God had strengthened him. Paul said that it was God that preached fully through him so that the Gentiles might hear. Paul tells Timothy that because the Lord was with him, he was delivered out of the mouth of the lion – he was delivered from incredible danger. Let us understand that we’re never ever alone – God will never leave nor forsake us. Because God is always with us, you have same strength to be delivered from the mouth of lions – never think or believe that you’re alone!