Feb. 6 Devotion: Retreat

Retreat

1 Timothy 6:11 But thou, O man of God, flee these things; and follow after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness.

Retreat! Retreat! That’s a phrase I’m sure we’ve all heard at some point in a movie or two. When faced with certain defeat someone will yell out instructions to retreat. This isn’t always in times of war. It could be something as silly as a bunch of kids in a snowball fight and one group is beginning to get more shots in than the other. It’s just a matter of getting away from something that’ll surely defeat you. That’s the exact advice Paul is giving Timothy here. He gives him some warnings in verses 9-10. 1 Timothy 6:9-10 But they that will be rich fall into temptation and a snare, and into many foolish and hurtful lusts, which drown men in destruction and perdition. [10] For the love of money is the root of all evil: which while some coveted after, they have erred from the faith, and pierced themselves through with many sorrows. In our text verse he then tells him to flee from these things. He’s not instructed to try to stand and fight them but to flee from them. This is sound advice for not just Timothy, but all of us. There are certain things in our lives that will trip us up and get us away from God. For one it could be money, some could be having things, for some it could be sports. Regardless of what it is, if it’s something that we know will draw us away from God we don’t need to try to stand and prove we can overcome. We just need to flee from it. Flee from whatever it is and instead replace it with running towards what Paul told Timothy at the end of our text verse. Pursue after righteousness, godliness, faith, love, patience, meekness. These things will place us in a much better place than chasing after things in this world. What’s keeping you from God today. Do you need to stop trying to fight it and just flee from it?

God bless you today! Bro. Josh Richardson