“Pray daily for the strength and courage to keep the faith until the very end.”
Thoughts from daily Bible reading for today – January 2, 2025
This charge I entrust to you, Timothy, my child, in accordance with the prophecies previously made about you, that by them you may wage the good warfare, holding faith and a good conscience. By rejecting this, some have made shipwreck of their faith. 1 Timothy 1:18-19, ESV
As the new year rolls around, many of us take this opportunity to set various goals and challenge ourselves to reach new heights. Often, these focus on some form of personal improvement. This will be the year you get out of debt, lose 20 pounds, or finally master a foreign language. What’s interesting to me is the fact that our New Year’s goals are often the same year after year! Why? Because our good intentions in January were not supported by sustainable changes in behavior and habit, and so our resolutions fall to the wayside, only to be picked back up when January rolls back around.
We often underestimate the difficulty of our resolutions, how stubbornly our habits do not want to be changed or upended. We may want in our minds to see this or that change, but our bodies and actions tell another story! This is true when it comes to patterns of eating or exercise, yet it is all the more true when it comes to our life with Christ and the intentionality with which we must approach the way of discipleship.
Though growth in the spiritual life is only possible by the transforming work of the Spirit in our midst, it still requires great effort and intentionality on our part. We cannot create the river of life, but we can choose whether we place ourselves within it or whether we stay at a distance. There are seasons of life in which this intentionality comes easily. We feel a longing for the Lord and are drawn to his presence in beautiful ways. Yet, if we are honest, there are many other times in which our faith can grow cold, and we struggle with a sense of his absence, wondering how a good and loving God could have possibly allowed such pain and sorrow.
It is in these moments of difficulty and doubt that endurance is most needed. As St. Paul reminds his son in the faith, Timothy, we must “wage the good warfare,” fighting with all our might to hold fast to the faith that was given to us. If we don’t, as Paul reminds us, there is the very real possibility of making a “shipwreck of our faith,” crashing our lives upon the rocks of indifference and apathy.
New Year’s resolutions are great, but what is most needed is steady endurance, day after day after day. And so, by all means, resolve afresh to follow Christ as his faithful disciple, yet pray daily for the strength and courage to keep the faith until the very end, waging a good war against sin and death, holding the faith with a good conscience.
Prayer
Father, this year, give us the courage and endurance to hold the faith with a good conscience, we pray through Christ our Lord. Amen.
Application
What resolutions can you make this year that will keep you daily attuned to the guiding hand and renewing presence of the Lord?
Related Reading
Ephesians 6:11-13; 2 Timothy 4:7-8; Hebrews 12:1-2
Worship Resource
Sandra McCraken and Jon Guerra: The Kingdom of Jesus
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