Does your church look different than it did a couple of years ago? Have a lot of people moved away or stopped attending? Have you wondered if your church will survive? If you are in that boat, take courage from today’s scripture. Paul exhorts Timothy to remain on mission.
1 TIMOTHY 4:1
“But the Spirit explicitly says that in later times some will fall away from the faith, paying attention to deceitful spirits and doctrines of demons,”
Stir up the Gifts
Paul’s first letter to Timothy is meant to encourage a young pastor shepherding a church by himself. We are not aware of the correspondence between the two, but you can tell by the tone that Timothy is feeling a little discouraged. Paul tells him not to fear but to stir up the gift inside to preach the Word. At the same time, Paul is realistic. He tells Timothy that many will fall away from the faith in the last days. They will be led away by lying spirits and evil doctrines.
Confused and Hurt
We see this happening in the church today. People are leaving the church in droves. The enemy is working overtime through the media and famous people to scare them. At the same time, doctrines are being preached that isn’t Biblical. When it doesn’t pan out, they leave confused and hurt. We need to be guarding our hearts and working to protect the innocent from these attacks.
Remain on Mission
The Word of God is living and powerful, able to encourage, correct, and rebuke. You need to fill your heart with scripture each morning and sit under sound Biblical teaching. If you don’t do these, you are opening yourself to wrong doctrine and lies that sound like they should be correct. In the last two years, I have seen many strong Christians fall away because they bought into a line of thinking that wasn’t Biblical. Scripture tells us that it was going to happen. Remain on mission.