Pam Padgett - teacher
2 Timothy 3:1 This know also, that in the last days perilous times shall come. 2 For men shall be lovers of their own selves, covetous,
boasters, proud, blasphemers, disobedient to parents, unthankful,
unholy, 3 Without natural affection, trucebreakers, false accusers,
incontinent, fierce, despisers of those that are good, 4 Traitors,
heady, highminded, lovers of pleasures more than lovers of God; 5 Having
a form of godliness, but denying the power thereof: from such turn away.
Paul warns that perilous times would come. Perilous times are full of danger or risk. One of the ways the peril comes is through people who are covetous.
Reading this I thought of how many of the people I know want
more and more people to be around them, including me. It isn't that they want
to hear things of God, but they want another person. Regardless of how many
others are around them, they seek one more person to be with them.
Proverbs 27:20 Hell and destruction are never full; so the eyes of man are never satisfied.
They love things of this world, not things of God. There is no life
in them, and the life I have is drained if I sit quietly as they bring
forth their worldly talk, and I am grieved. Even more dangerous, if I
continue to sit quietly taking in their words, what they say with
pleasant smiles on their faces begins
to sound ok. When I speak something of God, there is awkwardness and
often hostility.
Either way, I
find myself trying to get away as quickly as possible, needing to get
away from the death so I can have life, to allow God to restore me.
Last summer my niece called saying my mom had been taken to the
hospital and was in serious condition. They live in another state,
several hours drive from where I live. She obviously called so I could
go there and even said she was sure my parents would like to see me. I immediately thought I probably "should" go.
But when I stopped and turned to God, I heard that everything my parents needed was already provided, and that for me to go there would be like stepping into an ant hill of fire ants. I
tried the spirit bringing this thought and believed I was being led and
warned by the Holy Spirit to stay home and not go, and this is what I
did.
After my mom was released from the hospital, she told me on the telephone how well cared
for she had been at the hospital and how many people had come to see
her. The nurses at the hospital had even commented on the number of visitors she had.
I would
have been one more person in the parade of people, and my parents would
have loved this. They seek what appeals to their flesh, but don't love real things of God.
And I
would have been stung, as by fire ants, by what was said and done by
those who were there (including my parents). To have gone there, following my flesh and not the Holy Spirit, would have profited nothing and would have been perilous to me.
To the flesh it seems wrong to not go be with my seriously ill mom. But
to not go is the way I was led by the Holy Spirit. I think
this is an example of "enduring hardness" so we can serve God ...
2 Tim. 2:3 Thou therefore endure hardness, as a good soldier of
Jesus Christ. 4 No man that warreth entangleth himself with the affairs
of this life; that he may please him who hath chosen him to be a
soldier.
They covet us, our flesh, and our flesh may rise up to join with them in the situation as well.
But because we belong to God, we are able to keep our own flesh under control. And we can turn to God to see what HE wants us to do in the specific matter and keep our eyes on the way God leads us, which is the way of life not peril for us. That we may keep ourselves free
to hear from God by the Holy Spirit and obey Him ... to please Him as a good soldier.