LEARNING TO LEAN ON HIM
Read 2 Timothy 4:16-18.
Have you ever felt deserted? No one seems to defend you, everyone – including those close to you – have left you alone. Here in this passage, Paul is most likely speaking of an earlier imprisonment and subsequent appearing before a court. At that time, Paul had to fully depend on God for strength, for the furtherance of the gospel, and for deliverance from death. I think sometimes God puts us in situations when no one is around, and we have to fully rely on God to get through it and/or to accomplish His work through us. Indeed, these are in fact good times because it is here that we learn to trust God. While I believe we are made to be there for others and others for us, ultimately they cannot replace God. And so sometimes God takes those things/people away from us so that we will remember that He is and must always be the source of our strength.
When Paul says in v. 18 that God will deliver him from every evil deed and bring him safely to His heavenly kingdom, he is speaking of his present situation. But it was because of his past situation, that he is able to say that with the fullest faith and belief in what he is saying because he’d seen God work in his earlier situation.
The next time you feel like no one wants to help you, consider that God will never leave or forsake us, and that He may be using this time as a means of helping you move your trust in Him from your head, to your heart, and to your feet.