Study To Show Yourself Approved

Study and do your best to present yourself to God approved, a workman [tested by trial] who has no reason to be ashamed, accurately handling and skillfully teaching the word of truth. II Timothy 2:15 (Amplified)

Read Oswald Chambers this morning but apparently not for Dec. 16 (today) or I would probably have shared with you some of what he said (just the opposite of what he was intending). By the way you probably know that all those "devotions" were transcribed from his sermons by his wife, or we would not have them!

The teaching was about applying one's self to learning how to present the word of God effectively as you not only study but live and suffer as a disciple of Christ ( are "tested by trial").

He mentioned not just quoting other teachers we may have been listening to, but actually studying it for ourselves, until we can express it effectively and perhaps actually make a difference in someone's life.

Although I like to think of myself as someone who is constantly in the word, the Holy Spirit really impressed on me that he wants more in terms of disciplining myself to get before the Lord, spend more very focused time digging and taking notes about what God is saying about my life in the present, not just hoping he will lay something on me out of the blue.

Fortunately for me he is faithful to lay something on me that I did not earn and.do not deserve, but as usual he is calling all of us, I believe, to more. Not to more fleshly labor, necessarily, but to more intense focus on what the word has to say about what we are going through because surely others are or will be facing similar trials and what God shares with us we can share with others for their benefit..

I know I'm nobody and not as good as most everybody at anything I attempt but maybe some of you can get a blessing from that.