Month: July 2026

2 Timothy 4:2

“Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction.“

The Apostle Paul offered vital, wisdom-filled information for the difficult times ahead in the second of two letters to Timothy, a young man who was a trusted partner in his missions and was described as a son in the faith.

His words are still of great value in making us aware of those people and attitudes we will encounter in the last days. Here, Paul provides how one should preach or give God’s instructions. He basically says to be ready at all times, to correct, rebuke, and encourage in delivery.

When correcting someone’s error, the actual truth is to be given. Rebuking someone is an authoritative or formal way of telling someone they have done something wrong and need to correct it. Encouraging someone would be giving them courage, hope, and confidence so they feel able to do something or keep trying.

In teaching the truth of the Bible, it should be communicated not just with patience but with “great” patience and “careful” instruction. The goal is to be able to plant the seed of the Lord’s instructions, not to be disrespectful or offensive.

Nevertheless, some people may be offended by anything spoken from the Bible, which sometimes can’t be avoided apart from not speaking. Sometimes, people will not want to hear what you have to share, but only what they want to hear.

This message was necessary for Paul to teach as he highlighted that the time would come when people wouldn’t embrace sound doctrine. But, instead, to suit their own desires, they would gather around them many teachers to say what their itching ears wanted to hear, resulting in turning their ears away from the truth, to myths (2 Timothy 4:3-4); meaning accepting false stories, man-made fiction, or deceptive ideas.

Paul knew, as many of us know today, that people wouldn’t always desire to hear the truth of the Bible, and we should be prepared for that occurrence as well. Yet Paul encouraged Timothy to keep his head in all situations, to endure hardship, doing the work of an evangelist, discharging all the duties of his ministry (2 Timothy 4:5).

God has given us the fruit of self-control by His Holy Spirit, and walking by the Spirit in communicating the Lord’s teachings is necessary in representing Him well and making an impact on the listeners. Sometimes, people may be offensive and disrespectful in their response to what you share, but we are to endure with a lot of patience and carefully continue with all the responsibilities God has given us in ministry.

Matthew 11:28

“Come to me all you who are weary and burdened and I will give you rest.”

Have you been experiencing fatigue from life’s pressures lately? Have challenges discouraged you or weighed you down to the point that you have very little energy to function normally? 

Well, whether the heaviness has come from situations regarding employment, family, friends, ministry, or physical ailments, Jesus wants us all to know that we don’t have to carry these things as heavy weights throughout our lives.

These weights are known as burdens, which basically are heavy loads. Heavy loads exhaust our stamina and make us weary. Merriam-Webster defines weary as being extremely tired or lacking energy and enthusiasm, usually as a result of physical exertion, mental strain, or prolonged exposure to a situation. What we need is the Lord’s perspective on all of these things we carry.

Jesus doesn’t expect us to heap these burdens onto ourselves that cause such weariness, but to come to Him so that He can give us rest. Remember, He is God, and we are not.

Moreover, He tells us in Matthew 11:29-30 to take His yoke upon us and learn from Him as He is gentle and humble in heart, and as a result, we find rest for our souls. His yoke is simply submission to His will for our lives, which we learn through hearing and reading His word and doing what it says.

Thankfully, Jesus is kind, compassionate, and patient. It isn’t heavily burdensome to be discipled or covered by Him. His commandments aren’t grievous or impossible. He doesn’t create a taxing or abusive environment wherever life takes us. He has made us victorious, overcomers in difficulty or trials!

With each circumstance we learn, and we grow as His plans for our good are eventually brought to fruition. It is the enemy of our faith who will tempt us to believe we should carry things that God has not given us to carry. Yet God wants us to walk freely by the Spirit, which is life for us.

So remember, “Cast your cares on the Lord, and He will sustain you; He will never let the righteous be shaken” (Psalm 55:22). Release your struggles to Him, trusting He’ll give you the strength to endure. God promises His support as we do. So we don’t have to fear facing life’s challenges alone. God supplies wisdom to us generously. He just wants us to ask.

Psalm 34:8

“Taste and see that the Lord is good…”

Ah, the goodness of the Lord endures forever. It’s not hard to dwell on it. He does and has done so much for everyone. In Psalm 34:8, good, in Hebrew, translated as towb, can be defined as pleasant, agreeable, beneficial, beautiful, best, better, bountiful, etc. It often means something is well-designed, fit for its intended purpose, functioning as it was created to. It also indicates ethical rightness and general welfare, prosperity, or happiness. How in the world can one sufficiently describe God’s goodness when it transcends our human language?

Psalm 34:8-10 gives us two wonderful benefits we receive from the Lord because of His goodness:

1. We’re blessed when we take refuge in him. To take refuge in him means we receive  His shelter, protection, or a safe place from danger, trouble, or distress. Further, 1 Peter 2:1-3 tells us that now, having tasted that the Lord is good, we should rid ourselves of malice, deceit, hypocrisy, envy, and slander, and crave pure spiritual milk like newborn babies, so that we’ll grow up in our salvation.

2. Those who fear the Lord lack nothing. Fearing the Lord means we reverence Him, with awe and respect for His supremacy and holiness, and give attention to and obedience to what He says. As a result, we are not deficient or short of anything. Psalm 34:10 says that when we seek Him, we lack no good thing.

God is perfectly good and devoid of anything evil. We must see Him as He truly is: holy, merciful, faithful, and just, among the many amazing things He is. We taste of Him throughout life’s journey and learn of and experience His perfect ways as He works in, through, and around us. Psalm 119:68 reminds us that He is good, and what He does is good. Tasting the Lord is trusting, proving, and experiencing Him in our lives, and in doing so, we are blessed. 

Colossians 1:14

“in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins.”

Hallelujah! Today I’m praising God that we’ve been rescued from the dominion of darkness and brought into the Kingdom of His Son. Let’s take a minute to think about Jesus. Just who in the world is He? It is written that He’s God’s Son, the image of the invisible God. So, if we want to know what God looks like, we should look at Jesus. What is the fruit of the Holy Spirit in His life? What is His example for us living on earth?

First, let’s recognize that throughout His life, the Holy Spirit’s fruit of love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control were perfectly demonstrated by Jesus for us. Through His various acts of blessing, whether healing, delivering, teaching, etc., Jesus made known to us the Spirit, character, and will of God.

Further, it’s important to note that all things were created for Him. Sometimes we’d like to think that it was all for us, but the Bible tells us that, whether in heaven or on earth, He’s the one all things were created for.  Not only that, but He holds all things together. I’d say this tells us that without Him, all things fall apart.

If we want to know who matters most, we can look to Him. The Bible teaches us He’s the Head of the Church, the Body of Christ. So we are the living, breathing humans that make up the body of Him who is the head. This shows us that there is no other head. Of all the other religious beings we could come up with to worship or hold in high esteem, they should not be compared to Jesus. He is the Son of the Most High God.

Because of Jesus, we are no longer alienated from God. Until Jesus came, various animal sacrifices were used as atonement for the sins of mankind. However, because of His death on our behalf, we’ve now been reconciled to God. No longer are these sacrifices needed, as Jesus became the supreme sacrifice for our sins when he suffered and died on the cross. He was the sinless offering given, once and for all, so that we may become children of the Father. This is an amazing thing to think about.

It is our honor to accept what Jesus has done for us and love and live for Him all of our lives. Colossians 1:22-23 reminds us that He has now presented us holy to God, blameless, without accusation, if we continue firmly in our faith and are not moved away from the hope of the gospel we’ve heard. 

Moreover, Christ lives and works in us! What an awesome and gracious thing Jesus has done for us in dying for us and then living in us. Now, let us not forget His words in Revelation 22:12-13, “Look, I am coming soon! My reward is with me, and I will give to each person according to what they have done. I am the Alpha and the Omega, the First and the Last, the Beginning and the End.”