⏱ 9 min read

• Day 29 of 50 and we are going strong! Super excited to start with 1 Timothy 1 today! 📖🔥🤗
• Maybe you missed Galatians, Ephesians, and Philippians, Colossians, and 1&2 Thessalonians, but hey, you can join in and let’s “tattoo” God’s Word in our hearts! 📖🤍
• God bless you, and looking forward to your lessons, insights, and comments.

Paul, an apostle of Jesus Christ, by the commandment of God our Savior and the Lord Jesus Christ, our hope, To Timothy, a true son in the faith:
Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord. ~ 1 Tim 1:1-2

• Paul introduces himself as an apostle by the commandment of God.
• Which means he was in his God-given purpose or assignment. We pray that we will all be in God’s will and purpose for our lives.
• Then Paul introduces Timothy: to Timothy, my true son in the faith. Not a biological son, but a spiritual son.

A True Son in the faith:

First, this shows us that Christians must win souls and disciple them. Tell me, can somebody call you their spiritual father or mother? Can someone say about you: [_insert your name_] is the person who led me to Christ? 

Paul could point to Timothy and say, “This is my son.” Is there anyone you can point to and say, “This is my son/daughter; I led him/her to Christ?” If you can’t point to anybody, we want to encourage you to begin to witness from today.

• 1 Timothy 1:15 says, Christ Jesus came into the world to save sinners (souls)…
• So we want to encourage you today: begin to save souls.
• You can start by using your social media to share the Gospel; you can speak with others about what God has done in your life; etc.

Secondly, Paul blesses his son Timothy. When you have a father/mother who is happy with you and you have a good relationship with them, it is easy for them to bless you. Of the 10 commandments, it is the one about honouring fathers and mothers that has blessings attached. 

“Honor your father and mother,” which is the first commandment with promise: “that it may be well with you and you may live long on the earth.” ~ Ephesians 6:3

Paul was blessing Timothy because he was fond of him and considered him a true son (which just means there can be false sons or pretending sons… mercy!) And he blesses him with three things:

1. Grace:

Ephesians 2:8-9 defines Grace: "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast." 

When you have the grace of God, you experience the help of God, the kindness of God, and you receive gifts of and from God. When you have grace, God gives you things you didn’t earn, deserve, or work for.

One day, I was travelling to Europe on a trip. And one of my mother's in the faith called me to meet her at the airport and said she wanted to give me a gift. So she sent someone to give me an envelope.
When I opened it on the way, it was 200 euros. Woow! I was so grateful and felt so blessed and I thanked her over and over again. The truth is, I didn't do anything to earn it. It was her decision alone to show me kindness. That is grace! Receive grace (undeserved kindness, gifts, and help) in Jesus' name!

2. Mercy:

• Dear friend, we need a lot of mercy because there are times the laws have to be set aside for our sake.
• Things have to be overlooked; our weaknesses have to be ignored; justice must not be meted out; else we’d be doomed.
• That is mercy. There are times we need to be spared from the terrible things we actually deserve.

For judgment is without mercy to the one who has shown no mercy. Mercy triumphs over judgment.

James 2:13b says, “mercy triumphs over or rejoices against judgment.” In other words, mercy is the only thing that can override judgment. Receive the mercies of God, and may you be set free from the consequences of your errors, from death, from debts, from addictions, in Jesus’ name!

3. Peace:

Dear friends, one of the wonderful blessings you can ever have in this life is peace. Romans 14:17 says, “for the kingdom of God is not a matter of eating and drinking [what one likes], but of righteousness and peace and joy in the Holy Spirit.”

• Because without peace, you can’t even enjoy your meat and drink; food becomes tasteless.
• Do you know when you have a big problem, you can’t sleep? You can’t eat, and you lose appetite.
• Sometimes people lose weight and beauty just because of the problems they have.

But God blesses us with peace. The peace of God is not based on our circumstances; it is based on the presence of God. So you can be in the midst of bad circumstances but still be at peace. Jesus said:

Peace I leave with you, My peace I give to you; not as the world gives do I give to you. Let not your heart be troubled, neither let it be afraid. ~ John 14:27

• This means Peace is a gift. But why did Jesus say He is giving them His peace?
• Because in the previous verse (v26), He had introduced to them the Holy Spirit.
• So the peace of God is based on the presence of the Holy Spirit!

But the Helper, the Holy Spirit, whom the Father will send in My name, He will teach you all things, and bring to your remembrance all things that I said to you. ~ John 14:26

• Do remember that when they were travelling in the boat (Mark 4:38-41), the disciples were very worried they would die because of the horrible weather storm (the circumstance)?
• Yet Jesus was asleep on a pillow; perhaps dreaming koraa… Same circumstances of a terrible storm, but Jesus was at peace. Why?
• Because Jesus’ peace wasn’t based on the weather but on the presence of the Holy Spirit! That’s why He could sleep!

May the Lord bless us with His peace! Without it, we can’t enjoy our relationships and marriages, our homes and family, our successes and money, etc.

• So one of the highest blessings we can ever have is grace, mercy, and peace. And this was Paul’s blessing to his spiritual son Timothy!
• We pray that God will bless each and every one of us with these invisible and intangible blessings!
• In Numbers 6:24-26, God told Moses to bless Israel every time with these blessings:

“The Lord bless you and keep you; The Lord make His face shine upon you,
And be gracious to you; The Lord lift up His countenance upon you, And give you peace.”’

Whatever you may be going through, we pray for grace, mercy, and peace to you! Paul qualified the source of this grace, mercy, and peace. “Grace, mercy, and peace from God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord“

This suggest that you may have some of these by different sources. Paul says, the source of what I’m blessing you with is not a good job, not a sugar daddy/mummy, not good connections, not money…

• The source is God our Father and Jesus Christ our Lord! I love this so much!
• Beloved, it is very powerful when God is the source because only He gives good and perfect gifts (James 1:17).
• There are many good things in this life, but they are not perfect. If you want good and perfect gifts, then they come from above.

Every good gift and every perfect gift is from above, and comes down from the Father of lights, with whom there is no variation or shadow of turning.

• May God give you a good and perfect marriage, business, job, health, etc.! Some things can be good but not perfect.
• In that, they destroy your relationships; some destroy your faith; some jobs may be high-paying, but may pose serious health risks to you.
• Receive good and perfect gifts from above in Jesus’ name!

There’s quite a lot I wish to share but this is already an 8-minute read according to WordPress, so we have to end here. Please, please, please do make time to read 1 Timothy 1, and may the Holy Spirit give us more understanding. Amen.

Hey, you're blessed and highly favoured and dearly loved! Do share your lessons from 1 Timothy 1. Remember to tag us and your friends on 📲:
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Disclaimer: this post contains portions of messages and text originally shared by Prophet Kakra Baiden (who is one of my mentors in the faith).