May 14

“…I know whom I have believed, and am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him for that day.” —2 TIMOTHY 1:12

There are many people reluctant to fully surrender to God, because they’re afraid of what His plans for their lives might be. He may place us in an occupation we have no interest in, or send us off to a foreign mission field where we don’t want to be. We have this underlying fear that what we like, God won’t, and what God likes, we won’t. If we submit to God, out of sheer obedience, we would have to follow His calling, and are then worried there may be some penetrating lesson we have yet to learn from it. 

We know God has good reason for everything He does, but many of us don’t feel deserving that God would actually give us something we love and enjoy. Whenever we have fears about God’s plans for us, it is because we don’t know God well enough, and as a result, are not entirely trusting of Him. Paul is convinced of two things. Firstly, he knows whom he has believed and secondly, he knows the One whom he believes is able to guard what has been entrusted to Him. Paul doesn’t say I know ‘what’ I have believed, but ‘whom’ I have believed and that makes a world of difference. It is knowing who he believes that causes him to trust Him.

The Christian life is much more than knowing truths of Scripture. It is getting to know God. All the depth and reality of our experiences of God are directly related to how well we know Him. In fact, every facet of the Christian life grows out of our knowledge of God. Jesus defined eternal life this way, “Now this is eternal life: that they may know you, the only true God, and Jesus Christ, whom you have sent “ (John 17:3). Eternal life isn’t a thing, but a Person, and is enjoyed in relationship with that Person.

It is out of knowing God that Paul has no fears about the things he has entrusted to Him. Whatever we commit to God, He undertakes to look after. When we submit to Christ, He places God-given desires in our hearts, so that His will and His plans become our will and our plans. Paul describes God’s will as “his good, pleasing and perfect will” (Romans 12:2). That doesn’t mean all is going to be smooth sailing, but when we see it to be good and perfect, we will also discover it to be pleasing; that is something which gives us deep satisfaction, fulfillment and purpose. And those are plans we wouldn’t change under any circumstances.

PRAYER: Dear Lord, to know You is to trust You. Help me to totally submit to You so that I may experience your will in my life. Thank You, Lord. 

TO REFLECT UPON: Am I hesitant to entirely submit to Christ, because of concern what His plans for me might be?