WEEK 47 – DAY 3

PASSIONATE PURSUIT OF PURPOSE

Timothy, run away from youthful desires. Instead, direct your passion to chasing after righteousness, faithfulness, love, and peace, along with those who call upon the Lord with pure hearts. 2 Timothy 2:22 (VOICE)

If the Apostle Paul were writing to Timothy in our day and time, he might say, “Timothy, I want you to be a living billboard for the ‘True Love Waits’ movement.” Timothy was not a teenager but was young according to the standards of Greek culture in his day. Since a wife is never mentioned in connection with Timothy in Paul’s letters, one presumes he was single at the time. It was almost expected that young men would pursue their sexual desires, but Timothy was urged to commit to the purity the Lord Jesus commands. Paul cautioned him not to be impulsive or impetuous but to be slow and steady, not to have knee-jerk responses to challenges he faced. Paul was confident the Spirit would enable Timothy to remain faithful to all that the word of God required. He encouraged Timothy to funnel his passions into faithfully pursuing the character of Christ in his life. Mary Slessor was a prime example of an unmarried woman faithfully, passionately pursuing God’s call. She was born in Scotland in 1848, the daughter of a drunken father and a devout Christian mother. She worked in a mill for twelve hours a day until the Lord called her to missionary service in Calabar (Nigeria). At twenty-nine-years-old she disembarked from a steamer to begin her divine destiny in Duke Town. Against all advice, she eventually pursued unreached tribes of cannibals who her friends feared would eat her before letting her share the Gospel. They practiced abominations such as killing twins and their mother because of a superstition that one twin must be the devil’s offspring. She rescued many of these twins and mothers and planted herself between warring groups to force them to talk to each other. When she could no longer walk to the villages, she rode in a cart sent to her by friends. She remained faithful to her Lord despite all hardships and stood strong and brave by the power of the Holy Spirit.

Father, strengthen us to passionately pursue that which the You have laid on our hearts, our divine purpose while in these earth-suits.