Remember

When your situation becomes unbearable and you are at a rime of despair Paul reminds us to remember the life of Christ, remember that He is alive because of the resurrection, remember that God is faithful to His promise .

Timothy was in a situation that he could not seemingly win. The persecution of Christians was so great that people refused to trust in Christ as their savior for fear of their life. Not only this, but Timothy was putting his own life at risk for sharing the gospel. When you are putting your life at risk for something that is not working, you can imagine Timothy’s frustration and hopelessness.

There will be times in our lives where we feel like we are giving all we can to the service of the Lord and not making any progress for the advancement of the kingdom. We too must remember. And here is why:

Remember the life of Jesus

Jesus was called to be Savior of the world. He came to his own people group (Jews) and they rejected him. He lived a life of disappointments and frustrations. He knew what He came to do and did not stop regardless of how life and others treated him.

2 Timothy: The MacArthur New Testament Commentary The Preeminence of the Lord

We must keep in mind that Jesus’ path to glory was marked by pain before pleasure, sorrow before joy, humiliation before glorification, persecution before exaltation, death before resurrection, earthly hatred before heavenly worship. To remember those truths about our Lord’s earthly life will protect us from the foolish and ungodly promises of the so-called health and wealth gospel, which vitiates His command to take up our crosses as He took up His. If Jesus’ perfect and sinless obedience of His heavenly Father did not bring Him earthly prosperity and well-being, how much less can we expect to receive those things because of our imperfect service of Him? If our Lord Jesus Christ, “although He was [God’s] Son, … learned obedience from the things which He suffered” (Heb. 5:8), how much more should we?

If Christ had to face these hardships in life, we should expect to face them as well. This may sound bleak and unappealing, but we must also remember that Christ recieved His reward for being faithful to His call.

8 Being found in appearance as a man, He humbled Himself by becoming obedient to the point of death, even death [a]on a cross. 9 For this reason also, God highly exalted Him, and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name, 10 so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow, of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth, 11 and that every tongue will confess that Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

When we are faithful to our call in the face of adversity there is also a reward for us.

For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal. ()

– “Be faithful until death, and I will give you the crown of life.”

Remember that Jesus is alive

When we get to a point of despair we can sometimes wonder if God is even listening to our prayers. I have seen it many times in ministry where a faithful person in Christ can have such tragic circumstances in their life that they grow cold toward God. They come to a point in their lives where they can’t even pray.

They have lost sight that Jesus is alive and in control of everything that is happening to them. They have allowed there circumstances deteriorate their faith. This is why the church is so important. We must intercede for a person at this point. We must pray for them and remind them that God loves them and is in control.

We must pray that they would recognize that Christ is alive and knows everything that is going on with them. We must also remind them that God loves them and cares about them. Finally we must remind them to renew their faith in Christ.

Remember that Jesus is a descendant of David

This is important to remember because it reminds us that God is faithful to His promises. God made a promise to David that the Messiah would come from his lineage.

12 When your days are complete and you lie down with your fathers, I will raise up your [a]descendant after you, who will come forth from [b]you, and I will establish his kingdom. 13 He shall build a house for My name, and I will establish the throne of his kingdom forever. 14 I will be a father to him and he will be a son to Me; when he commits iniquity, I will correct him with the rod of men and the strokes of the sons of men, 15 but My lovingkindness shall not depart from him, as I took it away from Saul, whom I removed from before you. 16 Your house and your kingdom shall endure before [c]Me forever; your throne shall be established forever.”’” 17 In accordance with all these words and all this vision, so Nathan spoke to David.

Timothy needed to be reminded that God’s promise of salvation through Jesus Christ was just as effective during this time as it ever was.

This helps us when we face difficulties. We can go to God’s Word and be reminded of His promises. He is faithful to them. We need to discover them and live in them!

Paul Endured Hardship For the Sake Of Others

Paul knew that hit hardships in life would result in the salvation of others. He mentioned that he was imprisoned for the gospel, but the gospel wasn’t imprisoned. His imprisonment meant that the gospel would spread further.

12 Now I want you to know, brethren, that my circumstances have turned out for the greater progress of the gospel, 13 so that my [c]imprisonment in the cause of Christ has become well known throughout the whole [d]praetorian guard and to everyone else, 14 and that most of the [e]brethren, trusting in the Lord because of my [f]imprisonment, have far more courage to speak the word of God without fear. 15 Some, to be sure, are preaching Christ even [g]from envy and strife, but some also [h]from good will; 16 the latter do it out of love, knowing that I am appointed for the defense of the gospel; 17 the former proclaim Christ out of selfish ambition [i]rather than from pure motives, thinking to cause me distress in my [j]imprisonment. 18 What then? Only that in every way, whether in pretense or in truth, Christ is proclaimed; and in this I rejoice.

Paul is telling Timothy that hardships are not all bad. In fact, they often times are very good. He points out that his hardships are furthering the gospel. This had to be encouraging to Timothy because of the hardships he was facing. The key is not to give up, but to keep pressing on knowing that the Lord never allows us to suffer unnecessarily.

Rewards For Faithfulness

God promises rewards when we are faithful to our call.

If we die with Him we will also live with Him.

6 What shall we say then? Are we to continue in sin so that grace may increase? 2 May it never be! How shall we who died to sin still live in it? 3 Or do you not know that all of us who have been baptized into Christ Jesus have been baptized into His death? 4 Therefore we have been buried with Him through baptism into death, so that as Christ was raised from the dead through the glory of the Father, so we too might walk in newness of life. 5 For if we have become [a]united with Him in the likeness of His death, certainly we shall also be [b]in the likeness of His resurrection, 6 knowing this, that our old [c]self was crucified with Him, in order that our body of sin might be [d]done away with, so that we would no longer be slaves to sin; 7 for he who has died is [e]freed from sin.

8 Now if we have died with Christ, we believe that we shall also live with Him, 9 knowing that Christ, having been raised from the dead, [f]is never to die again; death no longer is master over Him. 10 For the death that He died, He died to sin once for all; but the life that He lives, He lives to God. 11 Even so consider yourselves to be dead to sin, but alive to God in Christ Jesus.

When we trust in Jesus, we put to death the old person and submit ourselves to the Lordship of Christ. If you do this you crucify the person of flesh so that the you can live by the Spirit of God.

Just as Jesus was resurrected to life, those who join him in His death will also be rased to life. This happens when you breath your last breath here on earth. The very next breath you take will be in the presence of Jesus.

If we endure with Him we will reign with Him

28 Peter said, “Behold, we have left [h]our own homes and followed You.” 29 And He said to them, “Truly I say to you, there is no one who has left house or wife or brothers or parents or children, for the sake of the kingdom of God, 30 who will not receive many times as much at this time and in the age to come, eternal life.”

Jesus promises Peter that the things they sacrificed on earth will be rewarded for in heaven. This is something to remember when you are asked to give something up to advance the kingdom.

If we deny Him He will deny us and judge us

32 “Therefore everyone who [a]confesses Me before men, I will also confess [b]him before My Father who is in heaven. 33 But whoever [c]denies Me before men, I will also deny him before My Father who is in heaven.

Those that receive Jesus Christ as their Savior, He will vouch for their forgiveness before the Father. For those that reject Jesus as their Savior He will judge them before the Father.