Daily Devotional: Monday, March 22

Speaker: Ben Sigman

Theme: Reality (Truth)

Weekend Music links on iTunes: Your Grace is Enough by Chris Tomlin; Let the Praises Ring by Lincoln Brewster; How Can I Keep From Singing by Chris Tomlin; Came to My Rescue by Hillsong United.

Read: 2 Timothy 3:14-17

Bible Challenge: Luke 1  

Think: Pastor Ben wrapped up our "Rooted" message series with the encouragement to be rooted in reality. The reason why that is important isn't too hard to figure out - what we believe matters! It shapes who we are, how we live, how we think and make decisions... God gives us great freedom and never forces us to choose His ways, but He does lead us to truth, His truth.

If we let God's reality become our truth we can experience authentic Christianity and a life that is full of purpose, meaning and works just how He designed it to work.  

The best way to get rooted in His truth is by committing to be a lifelong learner of God's Word and allowing Him to teach us through it. If you look at today's reading we see the Apostle Paul encouraging his young protege Timothy to "continue in". Timothy had been taught from childhood God's truth but even with that, Paul says that learning shouldn't end! An important part of that learning however is that Timothy was also to continue applying what he learned. It wasn't enough for him to know the Bible, he needed to build His life on it.  

So we find that Timothy grabbed a hold of any opportunities for instruction and growth that he could. (v.14) This spiritual instruction included wise teachers God had put in his life but he also had (v.15) access to the "sacred writings" for his own study and understanding. And 2 Timothy helps us see the overriding and important point of it all: It was to "give the wisdom that leads to salvation." What a great statement! The bible is what the Holy Spirit uses to draw us to faith in Christ. The Bible is God's instrument for that, but it is not believing the Bible that saves us. It is in believing in the Christ who the Bible tells us about that leads us to eternal life!   

Do: If you have been a little lax in your Bible reading - or maybe you never really have been much of a Bible reader at all - commit today to make it more of a priority. Get out your calendar and make an appointment with God each day to read His Word and get to know Him better. If you're doing pretty well in this department, then step up your game: try a new tactic like read more broadly and cover 5 chapters a day or get a different version than you are used to which might stimulate your reading in a new way.  

Pray: God, I want to get immersed in your Word! Help me to make that a part of my regular day. Use your Word to speak to me and show me more of You. Multiply my time as I commit to reading each day so that I can do all the other things on the schedule but still keep You and Your Word a priority. Amen.

The eDevotional is written each week by a team of volunteers from Timberlake Church.

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