Promises
As we have navigated Second Timothy, Paul has been insistent that Timothy remain rooted in the promises of the Gospel. The truth that Jesus entered this world and, though he was sinless, died a death of atonement on behalf of all those who would acknowledge their sin and need and surrender to him as Lord and Savior. It is an amazing truth filled with amazing promises. Promises that whisper to us that we are beloved in Christ (Is. 43:4). Promises that shout to us his abiding presence with us (Matt. 28:20). Promises that reason with us that though all the evidence seems to show that we have blown it, our sins have been forgiven (Eph. 1:7).
Jack Miller, late theologian and pastor, recounts his own journey of finding his footing in the promises of God:
“Back in 1970, my life seemed to me just to fall apart: nothing seemed to be right; everything went wrong. I was so disgusted with everybody else, that I resigned from Westminster Seminary, and I did it with enough of a splash that the word got around. I was mad. And I resigned from Mechanicsville Chapel. I made a bit of a splash there too. And it was a difficult time for me. Terrible time. Seemed like the end of the world, but out of that darkness I began to study the promises of God.
Now what I’d intended, was to see everybody as the problem. I didn't necessarily see myself as the solution, but I saw everybody else as the problem. And during that time, for several months I just studied the promises of God. And those promises made me a different person, but God had to break me. And out of it came the tremendous awareness of the power of the Gospel.
At that point I began to see that when God promised something He really meant it, and the gospel was the cutting edge by which that was realized. ... God breaks in order that He may build.
Both Paul and Timothy know what it is to be broken and to be living in a broken world. Whether you discern your current struggle with brokenness as emanating from without or from within, you will find rest for your soul in the promises of the Gospel.