I recall a time when I had some serious ant hills on my front lawn. As these ants served their queen, they built mounds on my lawn, turning a once-green lawn into a place of foreign habitation. They were building their own kingdom on my lawn, so I needed to address their presence. If I didn’t address it swiftly, they would continue to bring destruction.
Everybody needs someone to help them navigate through their life. Timothy had the best of mentors in the apostle Paul, who wrote two letters to encourage him in his life and ministry. During his missionary journeys, Paul had left Timothy behind in Ephesus so that he could grow the ministry that Paul had begun there. His first letter to Timothy is full of wisdom and guidance about how to do just that.
Everybody has some kind of battle.
Our lives can be such a challenge, and we often struggle to make sense of our suffering. Sometimes we feel a little like Job—as though the bottom has dropped out of our life and everything we thought we could depend on has disappeared from view. The book of Job doesn’t provide us with neat and tidy answers about all the suffering we face, but it points to God as the One we can trust when things seem to be falling apart.
There are three types of givers: the flint, the sponge and the honeycomb.