100 Days to a Healthier Churchनमूना

Day 90

Today’s Big Idea: Ending well. This is your last devotional before Launch Weekend. Let’s take it all the way home!

Key Verse: I have fought the good fight, I have finished the race, I have kept the faith (2 Timothy 4:7).

Thoughts to Consider: Second Timothy is the last letter we have from the apostle Paul. He wrote it while under house arrest in Rome, awaiting trial before Caesar, perhaps just a few weeks before his death. He was old, tired, and introspective when he sat down one last time to write to a young pastor named Timothy. In his letter, he gave Timothy a charge with several instructions: “Preach the word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage—with great patience and careful instruction” (4:2) and “keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry” (4:5).

Paul’s instruction, of course, is profoundly wise advice that still applies today. Paul reminds us then that he has fought the good fight, finished the race, and kept the faith. Perhaps Paul was recalling the advice of Solomon who, near the end of his life, wrote, “The end of a matter is better than its beginning, and patience is better than pride” (Ecclesiastes 7:8). Sadly, Solomon did not end his run as well as Paul ended his. May we follow Paul’s example, as he encouraged us to do, “as I follow the example of Christ” (1 Corinthians 11:1).