Dear church,

What has your devotion? Is it your spouse? A friend? Is it your daily work? A hobby? A home? If someone were to ask you what you were devoted to, what would you say?

The apostle Paul was devoted to the Word of God, to study, to preaching, to proper teaching. And he was urging Timothy to do the same.

Timothy was to preach the Word of God, and it didn’t matter what Timothy’s audience wanted from him. They could have all the “itching ears” imaginable. But Timothy’s devotion was to be to God’s Word.

This was just like Paul, whose own devotion to the Word of God was obvious. It seems as if Paul was asking Timothy to bring Paul’s study materials along with him when he came to Paul – “the books, and above all the parchments.” Paul wasn’t telling Timothy to do anything Paul wasn’t doing.

So what has captured your devotion? What do you spend the largest share of your time doing?

Not everyone, certainly, is going to be a preacher or a Bible scholar or a missionary. But somewhere inside of every Christian ought to be an ache to be of use for the kingdom of God – to serve Him in some way.

To what are you devoted?

Chris