While I am fussing with God about this recent health setback, I was reading in 2Timothy. That letter is thought to be Paul’s final letter, written while he was in prison in Rome.
The final chapter describes Paul’s feelings of loneliness and abandonment. Only Luke was with him. Demas had forsaken him for the world. Crescens was in Galatia. Titus was in Dalmatia. Tychicus was in Ephesus.
He also recognized that he would soon be martyred. But despite that, his main concern was for the church and for Timothy, his son in the faith.
After his instructions and encouragement to Timothy, in the closing chapter he expresses one of the greatest truths found in Scripture. “But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me ….” [4:17 NLT]
How do we overcome loneliness? How do we overcome abandonment? How do we overcome fear or disappointment or confusion or those “Really Father?” events. Only by knowing that through everything “the LORD stood with me and strengthened me.”
