2 Timothy 1:6-12: a reflection

6For this cause, I remind you that you should stir up the gift of God which is in you through the laying on of my hands. 7For God didn’t give us a spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. 8Therefore don’t be ashamed of the testimony of our Lord, nor of me his prisoner; but endure hardship for the Good News according to the power of God, 9who saved us and called us with a holy calling, not according to our works, but according to his own purpose and grace, which was given to us in Christ Jesus before times eternal, 10but has now been revealed by the appearing of our Savior, Christ Jesus, who abolished death, and brought life and immortality to light through the Good News. 11For this I was appointed as a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of the Gentiles. 12For this cause I also suffer these things. Yet I am not ashamed, for I know him whom I have believed, and I am persuaded that he is able to guard that which I have committed to him against that day.

Writing from prison, facing suffering for the gospel, Paul is nonetheless full of confidence, and he tells Timothy why. God gave us a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control, he says; so do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, but share in suffering for the gospel. And then he gives the ground of his own courage: I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard until that day what has been entrusted to him. Paul's confidence rests not on his circumstances, which were dire, but on the One he had come to know and trust.

Notice the ground of Paul's confidence: not what he believed, a set of ideas, but whom he had believed, a Person he knew. I know whom I have believed. His faith was not merely intellectual assent to doctrines but personal trust in a Person he had come to know, and in whom he was convinced. And out of that personal knowledge came the assurance that this One was able to guard what Paul had entrusted to him, his life, his soul, his future, safe in the hands of the One he trusted.

That is the kind of confidence worth having. Our faith, at its truest, is not just believing things about God, but knowing and trusting God himself, a Person, in whom we can be convinced and confident even when our circumstances are hard. And such trust rests in the assurance that what we entrust to him, our lives, our souls, our loved ones, our future, is safe in his keeping, guarded until the last day. When your circumstances are hard and fear rises, anchor yourself, as Paul did, not in your circumstances but in the One you have come to know. Say with Paul, I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him. Entrust yourself wholly to him, and rest in a confidence rooted not in what you can see, but in whom you know.

Lord, from prison and facing suffering, Paul was full of confidence, not because of his circumstances but because, as he said, I know whom I have believed, and I am convinced that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him. Give me that confidence. Let my faith be not merely believing things about you, but knowing and trusting you yourself, a Person in whom I can be sure even when my circumstances are hard. And give me the assurance that what I entrust to you, my life, my soul, my loved ones, my future, is safe in your keeping, guarded until the last day. Thank you that you gave me a spirit not of fear but of power and love and self-control. When fear rises, help me anchor myself in the One I know, and say with Paul, I know whom I have believed. I entrust myself wholly to you.