Hosanna Restoration Church

In this scripture, Paul is encouraging Timothy to stir up the gift of God that he received when Paul laid his hands on him. Let me just say that if we do not stay stirred up, we run the risk of being whipped! However, there is something else that God has been speaking to me about concerning the good that is in us and how it affects our lives and the lives of those around us.

In church talk, people are often quick to speak of the original sin and our sin nature. While it is true that the original sin opened the door for sin to enter the world, it did not keep God from giving good gifts to men, women, and children. Yes anything we do in our own righteousness is as filthy rags compared to what we can do in Christ, but that does not change the fact that God put good things in men.

Think about it, even the most demon possessed of people have a desire deep down to be free from that. The man who lived in the tombs was more than happy to be set free. Even the most evil people of each generation have displayed a soft spot in some area. There is a good thing in every person that God wants to bring out and set them free in doing so. This must be true, because God does not want anyone to perish.

The truth is that there are people who do not even know God that are pretty good folks and do many kind and charitable things. Those good things can only come from one place and that place is God. In fact, many times those outside of the Kingdom of God will reflect more of the good things of God than those inside, and this really should not be.

So, we need to stir up those good things that God has placed in us which in turn will stir up the good things God has placed in others. Now the backlash on this deal is that oftentimes when that good spot is touched by the presence of God, the reaction may not be so good at first. When people have convinced themselves that they can be good enough without God they do not always like the realization that their personal goodness is not sufficient for eternal life. Remember when you first realized just how useless you were without Christ? It is an amazing gift from God when our eyes are opened and we are able to see that nothing compares to Him.

So we have a couple of things we can accomplish with this. One is that we can be reminded that we have a responsibility to keep the goodness of God stirred up and well mixed throughout our being. We are responsible for us and not just for inspecting others. In fact, if we feel that our gift is inspecting it is probably because we are lacking and our goodness has settled out of sight.

The other thing we can learn is the importance of noting the good things God has placed in people and encouraging them that these are gifts that only God could have given them and that with Him they can be supercharged. This will stir their hearts and cause them to consider God. We recently watched a movie titled “Letters to God.” It was excellent and is a reminder that anyone can talk to God who will talk to God. We lift up Jesus and He will draw them!