STORMS

I love storms.  I love how the air changes and the sky begins to get dark.  I love to hear the rain start slowly and then either be a gentle rain or turn into a downpour.  I have never been in a really bad storm or tornado and pray I never am, but I so enjoy a “normal” storm.

When I was a kid, I would sit on our porch and watch the clouds twist and turn.  I could feel the temperature drop.  I could hear the thunder and see the lightening fly across the sky.  There was a corner that never got wet and that is where you would find me.

Then my dad messed it all up.  He enclosed the porch and it was never the same.  Yes, I would sit in the swing — no sense sitting in the corner —  and watch the storm, but I was no longer a part of the changes.  I no longer felt the air get colder.  The roof hid the white clouds being replaced by dark ones, the thunder was muffled, and the lightening flew across the sky unobserved.  Yes, dad messed it all up.  He put walls and a roof between me and the storm.  

Or was dad protecting me from the storm?

My Heavenly Father puts a hedge of protection around me.  Yes, I go through trials, but I do not do it alone and He warns me what to watch out for.

For the time will come when people will not put up with sound doctrine. Instead, to suit their own desires, they will gather around them a great number of teachers to say what their itching ears want to hear. They will turn their ears away from the truth and turn aside to myths.

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭3‬-‭4‬ ‭

When I read this verse, I saw everything that is going on right now. Paul wrote two letters to help Timothy get the Ephesians to return to the true message Paul had given them.  The Ephesians had become greedy.  Alexander, Hymenaeus, and Philetus were leading the church into a corrupted version of the faith.  In 2 Timothy, Paul was telling Timothy how to protect himself and how to use the Holy Scriptures in dealing with those that have fallen away.

Using the words of the Holy Scriptures, Paul “enclosed” Timothy so he would know how to protect himself against the false teachers.  Paul told Timothy how to encourage the Ephesians to turn back to the true teachings of Jesus.

But you, keep your head in all situations, endure hardship, do the work of an evangelist, discharge all the duties of your ministry.

‭‭2 Timothy‬ ‭4‬:‭5‬ ‭

Dear Heavenly Father, Protect my Soul so I can see through false teachers and stay true to the teachings of Jesus and the Word of God.  Amen