Be Still and Know Daily Bible Devotion

2 Timothy 2:2
You have heard me teach things that have been confirmed by many reliable witnesses. Now teach these truths to other trustworthy people who will be able to pass them on to others.
Every sensible organisation needs to reflect on its succession planning. Leaders come and go and it’s important to think carefully about how potential new leaders are identified, trained and appointed. This was Paul’s concern in this verse. He had trusted his young friend Timothy to teach the Christian truths, but Timothy, in turn, needed to look out for people to whom he could entrust this responsibility. The truths of the faith needed to be placed in the hands of trustworthy people who could be relied upon to pass them on faithfully to others.
The key word is trustworthy. I have interviewed many people over the years and however brilliant a person’s qualifications, the most crucial question is whether they can be trusted. A person who cannot be trusted is dangerous. They may be incredibly gifted and qualified, but if you never know whether or not they are going to turn up or respond to your emails, you would be much better off without them.
Trustworthiness is so crucial that we need to do everything we can to encourage it. This begins by us taking the step of faith and trusting someone to do a task. Because it’s a step of faith, there is the real possibility that they will fail. It can take some courage to ask someone to do something for the first time, but if we don’t, they will never grow. We must pray that through encouragement and support they will do really well and then be in a position to take more and more responsibility. I thank God for those brave people who trusted me to do jobs when I was a teenager and who then gave me loads of encouragement. That process of trusting and encouraging is absolutely crucial to any church – and Paul knew it!
Question
What are you doing to make sure that the gospel is passed on to trustworthy people?
Prayer
Lord God, help me to be willing to trust other people and to encourage them in the work that they do. Amen

2 Timothy 1:13
“Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me – a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus.”
Living the Christian life doesn’t come naturally to any of us. We all need teaching to help us live for Christ. However, there’s a problem with the word [itals]teaching[end itals] – it tends to make us think about classrooms and exams. We might be tempted to think that there is a textbook somewhere with the answers to every question of the Christian life, but there isn’t. The teaching that we need is intensely practical. You may have a complete understanding of every biblical passage about love, but if you are not loving, you have missed the point. You may be able to offer a very good definition of peace, but if you don’t live at peace with those around you, it will do you no good. Paul believed that there was core Christian teaching that was absolutely crucial, but he also knew that such teaching needed to be shaped by the faith and love that Timothy had experienced since he had met Christ.
The teaching that Paul speaks about here is wholesome. Other versions of the Bible refer to it as sound, and the word has a medical background. It refers to teaching that is healthy and brings life. We all need that kind of teaching to enable us to live faithfully for Christ in a world where many of the issues we face now were totally unknown to Paul and Timothy. Our world of air and space travel, internet connection, nuclear fission and DNA is a far cry from the first century, yet the core sound teaching hasn’t changed. The heart of that teaching is the declaration that Jesus is Lord. However much the world has changed, that stays the same.
Paul tells his young friend Timothy to hold on to this pattern of sound teaching, and we desperately need the same today. It is absolutely fundamental to our spiritual health.
Question
Where do you receive the sound teaching that you need?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, help me today to live according to the sound teaching that I have received. Amen

2 Timothy 1:12
I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him until the day of his return.
Security is a big issue in our society. Billions of pounds are spent each year in an attempt to keep things safe. Nothing could make it clearer that, sadly, we live with a massive level of insecurity. I’ve only once lived in a house which had its own safe. It was so heavy that we never attempted to move it, but we were very grateful to have it because it was the best place to protect chocolate biscuits when our children were young! We didn’t have anything more valuable to put inside it, and I often imagined with glee the disappointment of anyone who tried to break into it with an oxy-acetylene torch.
Paul knew there was no security issue more important than his salvation, and in today’s verse he celebrates God’s total reliability. God was able to keep Paul absolutely safe until Jesus returned or called him to himself. In a world that is full of insecurities, we all need to be sure that our salvation is secure. We can’t just sit back and let God get on with the job of guarding us. We have our part to play as well – two verses later, he tells Timothy to guard carefully the precious truth that has been entrusted to him through the power of the Holy Spirit. We can be confident of God’s ability to keep us safe, but we need to look after the treasure that has been given to us.
It's clear from this verse that Paul’s security lay not in certain facts or doctrines but in knowing a person. He had a living and intimate relationship with Jesus and, because he knew what he was like, he could be absolutely confident about the future. I hope with all my heart that you also know Jesus as your Lord and Saviour and that, as a result, you are able to look to the future with complete confidence.
Question
Are you confident about God’s ability to keep you safe?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, I thank you that I am able to place my life and future entirely in your hands. Amen

2 Timothy 1:9
God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time – to show us his grace through Christ Jesus.
When Jesus met Saul on the road to Damascus, everything changed. He moved from darkness to light. He experienced the forgiveness of his sins and entered into a new life with God which would never end. His whole life changed direction and he became an enthusiastic champion of the Christian faith, encouraging everyone to discover this salvation for themselves. In this verse, he reminds his young friend Timothy that salvation is not the end of the process. God saves us for a purpose: so we will live a transformed life of holiness.
Holiness is the kind of word from which we all naturally shrink. Like Isaiah, we are more than aware of how unholy we are and that our society is anything but holy. However, holiness is God’s intention for us because that is life at its best. Unholiness is like living with hard water. We seem to have spent much of our marriage in chalky areas, and chalk tends to fur up water pipes. It does it very slowly and gradually, but as time passes, the pipes get so clogged up that eventually water can no longer pass through them. If sin is like the chalky deposits which restrict the water flow, holiness is like having totally clear pipes. When we live holy lives, we are able to live life to the full. Seeking to be holy is the same as seeking to be fully alive. That’s why salvation is so important. God has saved us so that we can live a holy life.
Paul often reminded his readers that salvation was a gift, and it’s vital that we remember that. Many things we possess are ours because we worked hard for them. Our educational and sporting achievements are always the result of our effort, and our possessions are often the reward for years of work. Salvation is different. It’s entirely a gift. However much effort we put into it, we cannot achieve salvation. All we can do is open our hands and receive the gift. That’s grace – amazing grace.
Question
How would you describe salvation to somebody who is not a committed Christian?
Prayer
Loving God, I thank you for the gift of salvation. I pray that you will teach me more each day how to live a holy life. Amen

2 Timothy 1:8
Never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord.
This wasn’t the first time that Paul had spoken about the issue of shame. In his letter to the church in Rome, he declared boldly that he was not ashamed of the good news of Christ (Romans 1:16). Paul had been brought up in the strict disciplines of the Jewish faith. He was a Pharisee and had studied under the most respected rabbis of his day. He knew that there were many people who wanted him to feel thoroughly ashamed of his Christian convictions, which they saw as a terrible betrayal of his Jewish roots. On the contrary, he was so proud of his newfound faith that he was more than happy to boast about his salvation and his new life in Christ. He was the very opposite of ashamed!
Paul knew, however, that there were many reasons why young Timothy might feel ashamed of telling others about the Lord. Indeed, shame can be an obstacle for all of us. We might hate to be seen as different, or a bit odd. We would rather fit in with the crowd and avoid other people’s sneers and jibes. Paul wanted to do everything he could to encourage Timothy to be bold and confident in his testimony and not to shrink back, however costly it might be.
I fully recognise that the rise in religious tension and violence across the world in recent years has caused many people to feel apprehensive about sharing their Christian faith. However, I am quite sure that Paul would tell us to be bold and confident in our witness and to always speak with sensitivity and grace.
Question
How bold are you in sharing your Christian faith with others?
Prayer
Lord Jesus, forgive me for those times when I have not spoken about you for fear of what others might think. Help me to be more confident in speaking about you. Amen