Soaring with Eagles
2 Timothy 1:7
July 2001
Perry County Home Devotional
"Descending the winding stone staircase, you come finally to the dismal dark low-arched chamber where the apostle once lay bound, waiting to be offered up. Even on a hot summer day the visitor in Rome will sense the constriction of the low ceiling and the dampness of that dark dungeon."
That describes the place where the apostle Paul wrote to Timothy.
For God did not give you a spirit of timidity, but a spirit of power, of love and of self-discipline. 2 Timothy 1:7
The Life You Are Called to Live
I. You are called to live courageously
A. The realities of life
1. Timothy was intimidated by his circumstances
2. Life can be truly intimidating
B. Life is tough but God is tougher
1. Life can be hard
2. The power and support of the Spirit
a.) The Spirit dwells within us to give us strength and power
b.) The Spirit guides and directs us to follow God
II. You are called to live powerfully
A. The lack of power
1. Timothy felt like he was powerless
2. God supplies the power
a.) Timothy needed to remember the resource of God’s power and strength that was already his and at his disposal
b.) Acts 1:8
c.) God works in the lives of common people to accomplish uncommon things
B. The power of God is already at your disposal
1. The illustration of the light switch
2. We serve God without tapping into His power
a.) Far too often we try to do God’s work in our own strength and our own way.
b.) The power at your disposal is the same power that brought creation into being, the same power that parted the waters of the Red Sea, the same power that healed the sick and gave hope to the hopeless and the same power that raised Jesus from the dead. This is divine, supernatural, God given and life changing power. It can be your for the asking
III. You are called to live lovingly
A. The reminder to love
1. Paul reminds Timothy of God’s love
2. God’s provision of love
B. The power of love
1. We are called to love
2. God empowers us to love other people
IV. You are called to live soundly
A. The truth of discipline
1. Timothy needed to act wisely
2. God gives assistance for discipline
a.) There is no possible way to remain “level headed” in all that life throws at you without God’s help
b.) The resource of self-control literally keeps us in balance through life. When we are out of balance we are out of control.
B. The gift of godly wisdom
1. The Holy Spirit keeps us in balance
2. Setting positive priorities
Conclusion – Are you real?
The Skin Horse had lived longer in the nursery than any of the others. He was so old that his brown coat was bald in patches and showed the seams underneath, and most of the hairs in his tail had been pulled out to string bead necklaces. He was wise, for he had seen a long succession of mechanical toys arrive to boast and swagger, and by-and-by break their mainsprings and pass away, and he knew that they were only toys, and would never turn into anything else. For nursery magic is very strange and wonderful, and only those playthings that are old and wise and experienced like the Skin Horse understand all about it.
"What is REAL?" asked the Rabbit one day, when they were lying side by side near the nursery fender, before Nana came to tidy the room. "Does it mean having things that buzz inside you and a stick-out handle?"
"Real isn’t how you are made," said the Skin Horse. "It’s a thing that happens to you. When a child loves you for a long, long time, not just to play with, but REALLY loves you, then you become real."
"Does it hurt?" asked the Rabbit.
"Sometimes," said the Skin Horse, for he was always truthful. "When you are Real you don’t mind being hurt."
"Does it happen all at once, like being wound up," he asked, "or bit by bit?"
"It doesn’t happen all at once," said the Skin Horse. "You become. It takes a long time. That’s why it doesn’t often happen to people who break easily, or have sharp edges, or who have to be carefully kept. Generally, by the time you are Real, most of your hair has been loved off, and your eyes drop out and you get loose in the joints and very shabby. But these things don’t matter at all, because once you are real you can’t be ugly, except to people who don’t understand."
-- Margery Williams, The Velveteen Rabbit
New York: Doubleday and Company, Inc., 1958
