Daily Devotion, August 16, 2023

 

Devotion:

Read 2 Timothy 1:3-7.

Our devotionals this week are focusing on the grace we receive from God throughout our lives.

We first hear of Timothy in Acts 16, when the Apostle Paul went to Lystra. Acts 16:1 tells us that he was the son of a Jewish woman who was a believer and that his father was Greek.

Here in 2 Timothy 1:5, Paul writes, “I am reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded, now lives in you also.”

The Apostle Paul’s story of God’s grace in his own life is woven throughout his writings. In this letter to Timothy, Paul is reminding him of God’s grace that came to Timothy during his early years. This grace given through his mother and grandmother is one example of “prevenient grace”. 

John Wesley defined grace as God’s “bounty, or favour: God’s free undeserved favour…” According to Wesley’s writings, “’prevenient grace’ is the grace which goes before ‘justifying and saving grace.’”

Remembering this grace is to encourage Timothy to “rekindle the gift of God that is within you”, as the NRSV translates it.

God’s work of grace in Timothy’s life would continue to lead him to share the good news of Christ as he traveled with Paul and Silas to plant churches and help churches to grow in several places including: Berea, Athens, Corinth, Thessalonica, Philippi, Ephesus and Macedonia.

The story of God’s work of grace in our lives may be different from Timothy’s story. But looking back over our lives, we can remember ways in which the Holy Spirit was working to invite and to draw us into the knowledge, understanding and experience of God’s grace and love through Christ. When we remember this work of grace, we too, are encouraged to rekindle God’s gift within us!

Personal Worship Option:

Can you recall your first understanding of God’s work of grace in your life? “Grace-giving God, help us share our gifts as The Message writes in vs. 7, ‘God doesn’t want us to be shy with his gifts, but bold and loving and sensible.’ Amen.”