1 Timothy 1
12 I thank Christ Jesus our Lord, who has given me strength, that he considered me trustworthy, appointing me to his service.
13 Even though I was once a blasphemer and a persecutor and a violent man, I was shown mercy because I acted in ignorance and unbelief.
14 The grace of our Lord was poured out on me abundantly, along with the faith and love that are in Christ Jesus.
____________________________________
Beautiful Baptist, join Paul in being thankful to the Lord for giving you strength, considering you trustworthy, and appointing you to his service.
Join Paul in being thankful without comparing the gravity of your deeds to those of Paul because as a people we are different from each other in so many different ways. However, God loves us all the same.
Join him in rejoicing because in your own big or small way, you are in the service of the Lord. You praise the Lord. You worship the Lord. You devote yourself to the Lord. Don’t ever think small of that. To God it is the world to him. God looks upon you and gets filled with joy as he sees you in action. You are a servant of God.
Do you make mistakes? Sure you do. We all do. It is important to see mistakes as falling. As we fall, we still stand up, shake off the dirt and rub away the pain, and stride on. The even more important thing is to grow in wisdom through learning, and one of the ways of doing that is to learn from our mistakes, and never relent in being of service to the Lord.
Did you use to work against God at some point or the other? Sure you did. You have also been at odds with God. You blamed him for a lot of things that went wrong in your life. Perhaps you still do. You told people that God does not have a plan for you? You told people that God does not look out for his people. You told people that in order to succeed in life, people must follow their love for money and stop feeding their weaknesses with the inaction of waiting for a miracle. Let me tell you, we all did that as well on many occasions of our lives. But when we get to know better, and learn, we gain strength and realise that actually we have the strength to correct what is wrong with our lives, the strength to heal, the power to influence and the mind to escape our downfall and demise. Still we praise him, we worship him, we devote ourselves to him, we teach about him, we preach about him, we support our brethren in his name. We are in his service, and so are you.
He continued to choose us nonetheless.
We say the man who died on the cross alongside Jesus, whom Jesus promised to be with him in Paradise, is lucky. We say he is lucky because he lived to do wrong things all his life, and yet when he has only a few minutes to live, here is the Lord right next to him. All he had to do was request Jesus to remember him in the Kingdom of God, and Jesus gladly obliged. We say this must be one of the luckiest men in the world because he achieved the eternal life that God promised in John 3:16, just like that.
Hear me out Mzalwane, this man is lucky, but not as lucky as Paul. Perhaps worse than this man, Paul lived to persecute the followers of Christ. Then the Demuscus moment happened to Paul and all about Paul changed. Paul experienced the change here on earth first. He got to live in this new light here on earth for the longest time from city to city, from people to people. He experienced all that glory here on earth before he could meet up with Jesus in Paradise. By that time, his soul had grown so much. It has been fortified. But Mzalwane, so are you. Like I said, in your own big way or small way, you get to live in this light here on earth. Don’t ever take that lightly.
I remember one of the gospel songs that says “Ukwazana neNkosi uJesu – inhlanhla leyo“. Mzalwane, pause right at this moment and think about this a bit. Do you know Jesus? For whom you are at service? Then you are lucky.
Hold on to this fortune. Grow in it. Navigate within it. Learn through it. Influence through it. Teach through it. Lead through it. Realise that you are a treasurer to God. You are blessed already. Remain Blessed.
Amen
_____________________________
We thank our President Mabena for opening such a fortifying scriture at Phelindaba on the 5th of June 2022. May God continue to strengthen and bless him.