Monday, July 28, 2025

           Paul wrote two letters to a young man named Timothy—who was like a spiritual son to Paul.  Both of these two letters are part of the Bible and offer invaluable guidance in living faithfully and boldly.  We can easily take the encouragement that Paul gave to Timothy and make it our own as we seek to live by faith.  In 2 Timothy 1:12, Paul wrote, “I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that He is able to guard what I have entrusted to Him until that day.”  That verse became part of the hymn “I Know Whom I Have Believed” by Daniel Whittle.  We find these words from Paul as the chorus of that hymn.  Borrowing from the King James Version of the Bible, the chorus reads as “But “I know Whom I have believed, and am persuaded that He is able to keep that which I’ve committed unto Him against that day.”  What do we trust to God?  What is He able to keep safely for us until the day we go to be with Him?
            In his book A Deeper Walk, Marcus Warner has suggested there are at least three guaranteed blessings that God holds in trust for us.  First, He holds our pardon.  This pardon grants us full and total forgiveness for the sins we have committed.  No sin is counted against us or held against us because Christ has died for us and in our place to take the full-on punishment for our sins.  In return, the righteousness of Christ is credited to us and deposited into our account.  This pardon ensures that we are forever free from the penalty and bondage of sin.
            Second, He holds our adoption papers.  We are not naturally part of God’s family.  Sin has separated us from Him.  But because of the work that Christ did for us at the cross, we are adopted or welcomed into the family.  But we are adopted into the family through our faith in the one-and-only Son of God.  Romans 8:15 says, “For you did not receive the spirit of slavery to fall back into fear, but you have received the Spirit of adoption as sons, by whom we cry, ‘Abba! Father!’” Galatians 4:4-5 says, “But when the set time had fully come, God sent his Son, born of a woman, born under the law, to redeem those under the law, that we might receive adoption to sonship.”  We are fully part of God’s family—made up of people from every tribe, language, nation, race and background. 
            Third, He holds our citizenship papers.  We have died to the old life in this world and we are awaiting our new life in heaven.  We are part of a new Kingdom with God as our Father and our fellow believers as our brothers and sisters.  Philippians 3:20-21 says, “But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.”  We enjoy this new citizenship not because of anything we have done but because of what Christ did for us and granted to us.
            The good news is these three blessings are safe in the hands of Christ.  They cannot be lost or misplaced.  They cannot be revoked by any earthly authority or agency. These blessings belong to us now.  The Bible assures us of both our present and current possession of these blessings, “Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us in the heavenly realms with every spiritual blessing in Christ” (Ephesians 1:3).  Jesus instructed us to lay up treasures in heaven where the things of earth can neither soil nor steal them.  What do you entrust to the Lord today in addition to these three great blessings?  What do you surrender to His care and control?  Growing in faith is about increasingly entrusting to the Lord every part of our lives—past, present and future.  Have a great Monday!