I don’t necessarily remember my youth as being filled with evil desires. I might have been a bit more adventurous in the things I did way back when, but I tried my best to not be evil. These words of Paul’s to Timothy make me wonder what in the world kind of life Timothy had been leading up to this point.
But it wasn’t enough to ask Timothy to leave those evil desires behind. Paul then asked him to pursue things such as righteousness, faith, love and peace.
Righteousness is the pursuit of holiness … striving for perfection. That doesn't mean that we are perfect in everything we do, but that we love the way that God loves and obey God’s call on our lives and His will for us. Faith simply means acknowledging that God is Lord of our lives. We don’t really have to work at this … He gives us faith. All we have to do is learn how to live in a relationship with Him.
Love is so simple, yet we make it so difficult. It is so hard to say the words to someone. We think it is enough to show them we love them, but even then we fail miserably. Our idea of what love looks like and their idea might be two separate things and sometimes we don’t know that until it’s too late. Say the words to your family, to your friends … express your love; don’t hold back.
Peace. All month long I have been writing about peace. It’s not just an absence of chaos or stress; it is much more active than that. Look for ways to bring peace into the lives of others and you will find that it comes quite naturally to you as well.
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