2 Timothy 4:17 - 18 “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me; that by me the preaching might be fully known, and that all the Gentiles might hear: and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion. And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work, and will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom: to whom be glory for ever and ever. Amen.”
This is another beautiful set of scriptures, anytime we read about how God works in our life through His Sovereignty it is a beautiful read. It is such a sad thing when some Christians lack the true understanding of God’s sovereign work in our life. I could write about this for hours because in the last several months I have been preaching about the deep sovereign work of God in our life. Please understand, we are not alone in this world, God has us, He holds us in His blessed metaphorical hands, and He is never turning us lose to fall. If we fall it is because we have disobeyed the Lord and refused to obey His word. Our work in this life is to walk in the Spirit of God’s word, to read it, study it, and follow it. If we do it is called “walking in the light of His word” and if we do our fellowship is sweeter with God and our Saviour Jesus Christ. There are basically two kinds of Christians in this world, “working Christians” and “lazy Christians”. When you are a working Christian, you are working hard to learn of God in His word and walking in the truth that you have learned. Lazy Christians just really do not care, they let others study for them and then listen to what they have to say and walk as they think they should. God said, “But if we walk in the light, as he is in the light, we have fellowship one with another, and the blood of Jesus Christ his Son cleanseth us from all sin.” 1 John 1:7 Our fellowship with God is when we are walking in His light, not in our own light. The closer we are to God; the closer God is to us and the more blessing we are receiving from God. The Lord said through Paul, “Notwithstanding the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me…” Our life is in the Sovereign hand of God, and He will deliver us from the lion’s mouth. Paul wrote “and I was delivered out of the mouth of the lion” by the Sovereign hand of God. Paul went on to say, “And the Lord shall deliver me from every evil work”. Now understand that God will not keep bad things from happening to us, but He walks with us through them. Evil things happening to us are part of His predetermined plan for us. Rom. 5:1 – 5 These evils in our life strengthens us in our faith in God. Beloved we never walk alone, not even in death, “Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me…”. Psalms 23:4 God promised to never leave us nor forsake us. God went on to say, “will preserve me unto his heavenly kingdom” We are preserved by the Sovereign power of God, and God will never fail us, EVER! It is so sad when some Christians cannot understand that every detail of our life is in the hands and under the strength and power of God. So, God is not going to keep evil out of our life, He is going to carry us through them. “There hath no temptation taken you but such as is common to man: but God is faithful, who will not suffer you to be tempted above that ye are able; but will with the temptation also make a way to escape, that ye may be able to bear it.” 1 Corinthians 10:13
