If someone asked you, "What's the most important thing you want to do before you die?" how would you answer? Spend more time with my children? Get my debts paid off? Get my drinking under control? Make peace with my family? All good goals. Or maybe you'd say... be the best at work? Run a marathon? Do everything on my bucket list? Nice goals, too.
When Paul wrote his second letter to Timothy, he was at the end of his life. To some folks, he looked like a failure. He was in prison. Alone, broke, literally chained in a dungeon without even a warm coat to wear.
But Paul had accomplished his greatest goal (II Timothy 1:12). In fact, he'd done the most important thing any of us can do; he'd come to know Jesus. He didn't have a Sunday morning faith or a foxhole religion. He knew Jesus and was convinced that Jesus could guard what he'd entrusted to Him until the day of judgment - his life, his soul, his eternity. Five years earlier, Paul had told the Philippians that he'd give up everything - toss it out like trash - just to know Jesus, His power, and His fellowship. Now, he declares he's accomplished that goal.
If Paul came to know Jesus, we can, too. By reading His Word, asking Him for understanding, making our relationship with Him priority, being willing to be inconvenienced for our faith, and by letting the Holy Spirit change and make us like Him.
Paul had one thing on his bucket list, and he checked it off with joy: I have fought the good fight, finished the course, kept the faith; in the future there is laid up for me the crown of righteousness, which the Lord will award to me?
Used by permission from NewSpring Church
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