Not Ashamed (Daily Devotional)

Hello and welcome back, we're so glad that you could join us today on Living Supernaturally, where we take time to read God's word, take time to meditate on God's word with the intent of applying it of course daily in our lives. Today, we are looking at 2 Timothy chapter 1 and verse 8, we've been studying the epistles of Paul to Timothy and we are looking at 2 Timothy 1 and verse 8, where Paul writes and he says, ‘therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share with me in the sufferings for the gospel according to the power of God.’ Some very important things that he's laying down here, he's saying, do not be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord and the second thing he says, do not be ashamed of me, his prisoner, some of the things that he's going through and so he is saying don't be ashamed. The first thing he's saying is don't be ashamed of the Lord's testimony. Paul writing to Romans he says, I am not ashamed of the gospel of God, gospel of Christ because it is the power of God for salvation. So, there's no reason to be ashamed and there's no reason to be ashamed of it, there's no reason to distance ourselves from God, from the gospel. He's saying do not be ashamed but rather share with me, he says, share with me, share what? Be a partaker of the sufferings for the sake of Christ, for the sake of the gospel. There is a place of suffering for the cause of Christ. Now, everything is not easy, there is a place where there is suffering for the sake of the cost of Christ. The Bible says we should not suffer as wrongdoers, we should not suffer for the things that we do wrong but there is a suffering in place for the sake of the gospel. We could suffer because of various reasons, suffering is there because of the original sin, the Bible says that because of our own actions we suffer. The Bible says do not suffer as an evildoer, we could suffer because of others actions, maybe others do certain things and say things and because of which there is suffering. We could suffer because of satan, direct intervention of the powers of darkness of satan, we could also suffer because of the bondage of corruption that is in the world but for the sake of the gospel, the bible says all those who desire to live godly will suffer persecution. So, arm ourselves or arm our mind, our thinking with this that suffering is a reality if we want to live godly in Christ Jesus. There is a certain amount of suffering if we are living for the cause of Christ and Paul is reminding Timothy and he's saying there will be, but be a partaker, you share with me in the sufferings. So, the sufferings could be hardships, sufferings could be persecutions, sufferings could be people not really approving things but then there is this aspect when it comes to ministry, when it comes to sharing the gospel. Shall we pray? Father, we thank you again for this reminder about the reality of suffering, suffering for the sake of the gospel. Lord, enable us to know the difference, enables us to discern why we are suffering and if it is something because of our own actions, we pray that we'll remedy it, we'll take rectifying action but if it's for the sake of the gospel, we pray that you would empower us because it says that it is according to the Holy Spirit. So, empower us to go through, empower us to come out of it in victory, we thank you, in Jesus’ name we pray, Amen.

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