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2 Timothy 4:16
In 2 Timothy 4:16 (NKJV) is a great piece of advice for all of us as the Apostle Paul states, “16At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them.” Paul felt alone as he fell into the hands of the secular community and was placed in prison for doing the very thing that Jesus called him to at his conversion (Acts 9). He felt as if everyone had forsaken him, but he held his calling of love for one another as Jesus had commanded (John 13:34-35). His words of 2 Timothy 4:16b show the heart of a humble servant of our Lord Jesus as Paul does not hold a grudge against those who did not stand beside him in his time of need but exudes the forgiveness of Christ Jesus in his own life as he states, “May it not be charged against them.”
This is an example of the forgiveness and humility that Jesus leads us all to have.
We have all felt alone and forsaken at some time in our lives. We may very well have or continually do wish that God would lay down His righteous judgment on those who have forsaken us or left us all alone. It is human nature to feel such ways and desire such things. But Jesus calls us out of the human nature and into a new life that He has provided for us as He was forsaken just before He paid our price for sin. Jesus even felt forsaken by God – His Spiritual Self – as He hung on the cross, sinless and yet willing to finish His mission on earth in His humanly form while crying out, “My God, My God, why have You forsaken Me?” (Matthew 27:46) as He quotes Psalm 22:1.
Before Moses died, God instructed him to transfer the leadership of the people of Israel to Joshua. In Deuteronomy 31:6 the LORD spoke through Moses stating, “Be strong and of good courage, do not fear nor be afraid of them; for the LORD your God, He is the One who goes with you. He will not leave you nor forsake you.”
As Jesus left this physical world and re-entered the spiritual world, He did so with a promise to not leave us alone as He states in John 14:18, “I will not leave you orphans; I will come to you.” He promised to send His Holy Spirit to live within us and to be our guide through this world and into eternal life with Him in His glory. He declared in John 14:26, “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.” The Apostle Paul testifies in Ephesians 3:14–19, “For this reason I bow my knees to the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, from whom the whole family in heaven and earth is named, that He would grant you, according to the riches of His glory, to be strengthened with might through His Spirit in the inner man, that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith; that you, being rooted and grounded in love, may be able to comprehend with all the saints what is the width and length and depth and height – to know the love of Christ which passes knowledge; that you may be filled with all the fullness of God.”
Dear LORD,
Today we come to You in awe of the example You have shown us through Your servant Paul; that he would not place charges against those who forsook him but would ask that You not hold it against them. Please help us to know that when everyone else has forsaken us, You will never forsake us but will always be with us and ready to hear our pleas for Your guidance and comfort. In Jesus name I pray, amen.