What you heard from me, keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you - guard it with the help of the Holy Spirit who lives in us. 2 Timothy 1:13-14
It's funny the things we remember from many years ago. Sometimes, there seems to be no particular reason that we remember some things but forget a lot of other things. Like, I remember distinctly getting a basket for the front of my bicycle at my twelfth birthday party at Shakee's Pizza on Summer Ave. Not the girly plastic one with flowers, mind you, but the cool aluminum wire one! Anyway, I have no knowledge of any of the other gifts from that party and I have no idea why I remember this one and not the others.
Paul tells Timothy to remember or "keep" what he had been told by Paul. He says to rely on the Holy Spirit to help "guard the 'good deposit' that had been entrusted" to him. Timothy had been entrusted with the Gospel - the Good News of Christ and the life experience of Paul. But why and why would he need the Holy Spirit's help to remember it? Stop right now and try to remember every word of every teacher you've had since ninth grade to this day whether it be in school or job training. Got them, each word? Most likely not unless you're in that low percentage that has a "photographic memory." Of course not - no one can remember every word we've been given as an instruction even if it was an authority figure saying, "Hey! Listen to me and don't forget this!" (How many times have you asked your kids; "Are you listening to me?" or "Why do I have to keep telling you this same thing over and over?" or the warning: "Don't make me repeat myself!") We would need the help of a person who knows every word we've been told or at least the help to recall the important information for a particular moment - a Spiritual Being's help will do. This is what Paul is talking about.
Friends, we've been given sound teaching on many matters. Information and life experience has been "deposited" into us - for withdrawals later! The reason was never to just have knowledge for knowledge sake but instead, to apply or implement them into our lives either at that moment of for our lifetime. When Paul says, "...keep as the pattern of sound teaching, with faith and love in Christ Jesus. Guard the good deposit that was entrusted to you..." he is saying to us all to not forget the truths of God that we've been taught and lived out in our lives. It's to be the pattern of our lives to use these things and to build on them with the help of God. and His Spirit. Having a daily time set aside for just God is the right way to do that.
As Paul pointed out yesterday, there are things that we're supposed to entrust to God. Let us today realize that there are things He's entrusted to us as well. Guard them well, they'll carry us through many life experiences!
- Pray that you can, when needed, recall the memories of instructions and teachings of God when in good times and bad and that you'll rely on these truths to bring you through.
- Pray that people will become thirsty to have the Bible in them, for these are the very words of God to us all.
- Pray for the words from your past to say to someone when they will need them.