Endure Hardship (Daily Devotional)

Hello and welcome to yet another episode of Living Supernaturally. This week, we are again focusing on the epistles of Paul to Timothy and gleaning some learnings and trying to put that in practice in our daily lives. We’re looking at 2 Timothy chapter 2, verses 3 to 7, where Paul says, ‘You therefore must endure hardship as a good soldier of Jesus Christ. No one engaged in warfare entangles himself with the affairs of this life, that he may please him who enlisted him as a soldier. And also if anyone competes in athletics, he is not crowned unless he competes according to the rules. The hardworking farmer must be first to partake of the crops. Consider what I say, and may the Lord give you understanding in all things.’ Paul paints three pictures, one is that of a soldier, second is that of an athlete and the third one is that of a farmer. So, he says that you are a soldier in Christ Jesus. He is talking about a reality of the life of a soldier and he is saying, you must endure hardship. If you are a believer in the Lord Jesus, the Lord looks at you as a soldier, as a warrior for the cause of Christ. As a warrior who lives and who faces the reality of battles every day, it could be a spiritual battle, a battle in the mind, but battles are a reality. Therefore, he says, your identity as a soldier in Christ is very real. Therefore, you must endure hardship. Endure meaning bear patiently these challenges, difficulties and go through some amount of pain, go through it patiently, endure this challenge and hardship because it is a reality. So, be willing, let it not take you by surprise, why are these hardships there? It is there because we are soldiers/ warriors for the cause of Christ. So, Paul says, endure hardships, you will face them, hardships are the reality but you need to endure and go through them. So, he says, you are a soldier and engaged in warfare. In connection with that, we also read this that Paul says, whoever is engaged in conflict as a soldier doesn’t intertwine or get entangled in the affairs of civilian life or domestic life. A question comes to our mind, does that mean that if I have domestic responsibilities of being a spouse, a parent, do I just forgo that? No, we know that God is the one who designed that, therefore we need to fulfill those responsibilities because God is for it but not getting entangled at the cost of compromising the call or at the cost of sacrificing and not giving priority to God, His word and the call of God. May God give us understanding even as we pursue Him. Let us pray, Father, we thank you that you’ve called us to be warriors, soldiers and to endure what comes with that- hardships. Today, I pray that you would give is the strength according to your Holy Spirit to endure hardships. I pray for those of us who are on the verge/ breaking point because of hardships, I pray that you will empower each of us so that we can endure and overcome, in Jesus’s name we pray, Amen.

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