"I Thank Him"

THE COMPELLING APPOINTMENT: 1 Timothy 1:12

I thank him who has given me strength, Christ Jesus our Lord, because he judged me faithful appointing me to his service.

Having wrapped up his discussion on the danger of false teaching, Paul moves on to the matter of his own calling and credentials for writing, giving both positive and negative examples and points for his protege, Timothy.

[He] who has given me strength. The task is too much for the Apostle alone, as it is for any of us. On the other hand, God does not call and deploy without giving the means to do the job, whether of internal or external resources. This is absolutely necessary. In my father's office for many years there has hung a framed prayer for ministry, imploring the guidance and protection of God lest the one making the prayer make a mess of everything. Anyone who has sought to fulfill a spiritual calling knows well the aptness of this prayer, and the dangers which lurk close by. But God is faithful to lend the strength necessary to the occasion. What is required from us is faith: not in the sense of some kind of herculean spiritual effort that we have to work up to, but like the simple turning of a tap to open the way for God's resourcing to flow, saying "yes, I will trust" to God's offer of all things needful. Faith is our assent, yours and mine, to the abundant provision of God.

To faith, then, God adds not just ability and skill but stamina, too, to continue. To stamina God adds anointing. To anointing, God adds wisdom. To wisdom, God adds compassion. And to compassion, love. This is the strength which God imparts to us.

He judged me faithful. Paul (as he will soon aver) was a persecutor of the church! He would have seemed the last man to be trusted -- as his first experience at Damascus and Jerusalem proved. Yet God had other plans. In what sense then is this true?

Paul had faith. He trusted God, and knew God's power, even if it was at first wrongly applied.

Paul was devoted. He gave 125% of his effort (as we say) to the "cause", whether it was his misguided cause (opposing God's work by persecuting "the Way" of Christ) or his later, holy one. The energy was there and focused in intensity -- it just needed to be focused in the right direction. Many of the Church's greatest leaders over the years were persons who had great flaws or who had been at one time great persecutors of the faith, but whom God turned in a different direction.

Paul was faithful in his work. Starting from the beginning (see Acts 9), he persevered against all odds and under all circumstances, to the end.

Appointed to His service. Jesus said, "Many are called, but few are chosen." Paul could not keep the message to himself. The call is a sacred one, and the Holy Spirit opened the doors for the Apostle to fulfill it.


Lord Jesus Christ, you have given me strength to do Your work. Grant that I may live fully-charged and fully-engaged in the work to which You call me, as You have been to me. Appoint me each day to my allotted tasks for You, but let me ever fulfill them in loving service to You. In Your holy Name I pray, Lord Christ. Amen.


Prince Frederick, Maryland (Providence)