Advent Devotions

Today’s author is Prince of Peace member Milt Warkentien.

It was an interesting experience coming up with a liturgy for our 5-week series “Honoring God,” based on 5 readings from 1st and 2nd Timothy. I will say I was very STUCK, but went to my Ragamuffin Bible, which has reflections and suggested readings by Brennan Manning. In a reflection on 1st Timothy 1:15-17 Brennan talks about a great weakness in the North American church at large: our refusal to accept our brokenness. This reflection is what the confession for this series is based off of. 

In the reading for the 3rd Sunday of the series we’ll hear “God did not give us spirit of timidity, but one of power, love and self-control” (verse 7 in reading 2nd Timothy 1:1-14). With all that’s going on in the world I wrestled with what to do with the word “power.” God did not give to us a spirit of timidity, but one of POWER, love and self-control. I thought that power is one of the big issues in the world, so how could POWER be a good thing? When re-reading this passage, I put power with love and self-control, as it’s written, and realized that this was probably a call to me that I had everything I needed from God to be a beacon of God’s light. I have the power to withstand prejudice, hatred, bullying, etc.! I have the love to be a beacon of God’s love. I have the self-control needed to withstand all that may come my way. 

This realization helped me with the beginning of verse 12, from our reading from this past Sunday, “Fight the good fight of Faith” (1st Timothy 6:6-19). 

At the end of working on the liturgy, I wanted to call this series “Fight the Good Fight of Faith” instead of “Honoring God,” but some others on the big idea team had trouble with “fight.” What do the words “fight” and “power” conjure up in your mind? After heeding what they had to say we kept it “Honoring God.” 

Has what’s happening in our world changed how you perceive the words “fight” and “power”? I was young during the Cold War and Vietnam war. I’m sad to say that I pretty much didn’t have a clue on all the racial inequalities of my teenage years, and I will say I can be pretty oblivious to many things happening in the world around me today, but I hold fast to John 13:34, “A new command I give you: love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another.”

Why is this new command so hard to do? Is loving as God loves us what fighting the good fight of faith comes down to? Paul doesn’t say “walk the good walk of faith”, or “talk the good talk of faith”. Paul says to “fight the good fight of faith”! Coming from one who persecuted Christians before his conversion, I’d say Paul knew that sharing God’s love with the world wasn’t going to be easy.

I leave you with verse 2 of ELW 712 “Lord, Whose Love in Humble Service,” which we’ll sing this coming Sunday:
Still your children wander homeless,
still the hungry cry for bread;
still the captives long for freedom;
still in grief we mourn our dead.
As you, Lord, in deep compassion
healed the sick and freed the soul,
by your spirit send your POWER [there it is]to our world to make it whole.

God lives in us all, so we all have the ability to “fight the good fight of faith” because we have power, not timidity, love and self-control.

Loving God, help us be your power, living with the love you’ve shown us. Help us live with self-control, so that your light may shine in all we do. Help us “Fight the good fight of faith”. Amen