The Word: 1 Timothy 6: 11(KJV)
11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.
Dig Deeper: 2 Timothy 2: 22 (KJV)
22 Flee also youthful lusts: but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace, with them that call on the Lord out of a pure heart.
Think about it
THE FOLLOWER
We already said the disciple is a follower.
Another word for follow is to chase…. In other words to run after something or someone. Some people chase things that are ephemeral like fame, clothes, cars, houses etc. Have you seen some houses built 50-60 yrs ago especially in developing nations in Africa? They look obsolete now. If we chase after physical thing, they will become obsolete. But if we chase after spiritual things, we will always be relevant. Let’s not waste our time chasing after vanity now that many of us are still young. Some of Daddy G.O’s colleagues chased after position, money etc when he decided to chase after God several decades ago. Can you see how relevant he still is right now compared to some of his colleagues? The person who chases after the right thing will maintain relevance. Everybody is always chasing after something. What we are chasing after is usually our priority and focus. Initially it would seem insignificant but several years later the result of what we have spent our effort chasing will now be visible from our results. Our texts today admonishes us on some things we need to chase after:
…….and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness…..
……but follow righteousness, faith, charity, peace,
Righteousness:
Wherever we are: at home, work, church, God wants us to follow after what is right. We should stand for what is fair, true, honourable, righteous.
Godliness:
We cannot stand on the fence or be politically correct in regards to God. We need to be on God’s side. Godliness is God likeness. God must be first, We have to be biased towards God.
Faith:
Our role model should be people of faith. People who believed God until there was a performance of what was promised
Love:
Love has to be a major standpoint for us in dealings with others. Bitterness, fighting, bad temper, anger cannot be allowed to stay permanently in our hearts. We need to help ourselves and make conscious effort to walk in love
Patience:
Has God promised? There is is the place of patience in getting hold of the promises. We can’t adopt the microwave approach. We need time and patience, endurance to inherit the promises.
Meekness:
Jesus our perfect example was humble. He was not full of himself though he has the right to be so. He was a servant leader. He washed the feet of his disciples. Our service will sometimes expose us to disrespect, scorn, abuse… But do we have the large heart and thick skin to take it?
Peace:
When we follow after the right things. When the Kingdom of God is what we chase after. Then the peace that passes all understanding will be our experience
Nuggets:
What we follow or chase after determines what we experience in life
Our memory verse for March 2018
Luke 9: 23
23 And he said to them all, If any man will come after me, let him deny himself, and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Let’s take a few moment to learn our memory verse for this month by heart. It can be memorised in 3 lines:
Line 1: And he said to them all,
Line 2: If any man will come after me, let him deny himself,
Line 3: and take up his cross daily, and follow me.
Once you say it a few times it will stick.
Prayer focus: Our next level prayers:
Lord help me to follow after the right things. Let me not chase empty smoke
On Grace:
Masterlife Workbook: The Church is embarking on weeks of discipleship workbook study: Masterlife now on the 2nd workbook: The Disciple’s personality
