“Do your best to present yourself to God as one approved, a workman who does not need to be ashamed and who correctly handles the word of truth.” (2Tim 2:15-16NIV)
I rejoice in the Lord with you, as we come into this new year, year 2025. My prayer is that God, in His mercy and love, will perfect all that concerns you in the year, in Jesus’ name. Amen.
Now, as we are starting this new year together, I want to encourage you with the words of Paul the apostle, which we have in our opening text. And what do they say? They tell us to do our best to present ourselves to God as one approved, workmen and workwomen who do not need to be ashamed and who are correctly handling the word of truth.
What is this telling us? It is that gaining God’s approval is not automatic. Yes, all that we needed to do in order for Him to accept us as His people was put our faith in the Lord Jesus. But in order to live lives that He approves of, lives that He will continually reward and honour, we must make effort to daily learn those things that please Him and to also do them.
As Paul further shows us in that text, if we are not making effort to gain God’s approval through the way we live and through the things we do, we will often find ourselves ashamed to stand before Him. There are many today who are ashamed to stand before God to pray or to do anything. And is that because God does not love them or because He has rejected them? No! Rather, it is because they know that the lives they are living and the things they are doing are not worthy of Him or presentable to Him.
To say the fact, the lives and the works of some people are not even presentable to people like them. I mean that they themselves are ashamed to let others see their lives and their works for what they really are. How, then, will they feel confident before God about their lives and works?
Now don’t miss my point. I am not saying that our good lives or good works give us any ground to declare ourselves as righteous before God. Nobody’s good works are good enough to make Him righteous before God. Only God Himself can make us righteous before Him. And it is through our faith in His Son Jesus Christ that He makes us righteous before Him. Also, it is only through our faith in Christ Jesus that we qualify to stand before God unashamed.
However, we must also understand that if we truly have faith in Him, we will also be serious about living our lives the way He wants us to live them and handling whatever we are doing in life the way He wants us to handle it. Otherwise, we will often find ourselves ashamed of ourselves and of our works, when we are confronted with the truth about them.
John, in one of his epistles, says this to us: “And now, dear children, continue in him, so that when he appears we may be confident and unashamed before him at his coming.” (1John 2:28NIV) Did you see that? If we want to face the Lord Jesus confidently and unashamed when He returns, we need to remain in Him and also continue to live our lives and to do our works, whatever they may be, to honour Him. Otherwise, when He shows up, even though He is not going to reject us or cast us away, we will not be happy with ourselves for letting Him down in life.
So, as you face this new year, do your very best to show yourself as one approved of God. Yes, do your very best to be devoted to learning what pleases Him in all that you do and to doing it. And remember that His grace is sufficient for you. Remember also that you can do all things through Christ that strengthens you. So, don’t attempt to make excuses for doing things that you will be ashamed to let God know about or to present to Him. And may His grace continually overflow to you for a life that is excellent before Him in the year. Amen.
Happy 2025.
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