Devotions

“At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. [Notwithstanding] the Lord stood with me, and strengthened me … And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever” (2 Timothy 4:16-18, my italics).

When Paul uses the word notwithstanding in this passage, He means simply, “in spite of.” He is telling us, “The Lord stood with me and strengthened me in spite of all the troublesome times I faced.” Paul knew that if he drew near to the Lord, Christ would honor him by standing with him.

The apostle declared, in effect: “Everywhere I turned, there was trouble and distress. Yet, when others let me down — when I was alone and all I could see were hard times — the Lord came to me and poured His strength into me. He delivered me from my fears. He gave me an assurance that He would keep me from every evil work, and He will continue to keep me until I get to heaven.”

Paul thrilled to see his spiritual children grasping this idea of notwithstanding in their lives. Year after year, he saw the Lord strengthening them and enabling them to stand steadfast in the midst of even the most difficult times.

Beloved, you can’t obtain this kind of assurance and strength anywhere but in the presence of the Lord Himself. We know Paul was in constant communion with Christ through prayer, and that is why evil news or trials could not shake him. Every time Paul faced another terrible trial, he escaped to prayer, running to Jesus to unburden his heart.

“Behold, now is the accepted time; behold, now is the day of salvation” (2 Corinthians 6:2, my italics).

This message is meant for all who have fallen away or turned away from the Lord. According to the apostle Paul, who wrote the verse above, “Today is the day of mercy and grace.” In other words, if you ever plan to believe, that time is now.

This statement by Paul is both an invitation and a warning. The warning is as follows: “Do not receive the grace of God in vain. Do not ignore, neglect or cast aside God’s offer of mercy. Respond to it now, as it is offered to you.”

Jesus warned that many believers would turn away and grow cold: “Because lawlessness will abound, the love of many will grow cold” (Matthew 24:12). His message is clear: Many who have been on fire for the things of God are going to fall away. They will drift into a spiritual coldness and some will return to their old fleshly ways.

All the backsliding we see today — the turning away from faith to unbelief — comes at a time when you would least expect it. Rather, you would expect people to be drawing nearer to God. We are at the beginning of those days of “sorrows” that Jesus referred to (see Matthew 24:8). Even prominent voices in the world agree that these are days of unspeakable wickedness, marked by uncontrollable greed, rampant sexual perversions. Multitudes are giving themselves over to addictions of all kinds, from drugs to alcohol to pornography.

I ask you: Is this the time to neglect the day of salvation? Absolutely not! If you ever truly loved and followed Jesus but now are cold and indifferent, the Holy Spirit is speaking to you. He is inviting you to come back to the merciful arms of Christ. With compassion, I urge you to listen to what the Holy Spirit is saying. 

“Father, I desire that they also, whom you have given me, may be with me where I am, to see my glory that you have given me because you loved me before the foundation of the world” (John 17:24, my emphasis). Jesus prayed this for His disciples — and that includes us. He asked the Father that we may see His glory, meaning to know Him.

There were certain times in the Old Testament when Jesus revealed Himself in human or angelic form. You know what happened in those times. When Isaiah saw God’s glory in the temple, his body quaked and he fell on his face. Jacob’s hip was broken when he tried wrestling with the Lord. When Moses asked to see God’s glory, the Lord told him, “Okay, but first I have to cover your face. Then I have to hide you behind a rock. Then I can only let you see the trailing afterglow behind Me.” In short, He had to protect Moses from the full revelation of Himself. It wasn’t an easy thing to be in the glorious presence of the Holy One!

This didn’t happen just in the Old Testament, however. When Peter first met Jesus, he fell on his face, suddenly aware of his unworthiness, and declared, “Depart from me, for I am a sinful man, O Lord” (Luke 5:8). It was true also of the apostle John, exiled on Patmos, when he received the Revelation. When the Lord’s voice first spoke to him, John fell on his face in terror. There was no frivolity about encountering the Lord.

We know from Scripture that this is the normal response that men and women have when they see Jesus. It begs the question: Have we seen Jesus? Are we transformed by the merest glimmer of His presence in our lives? What would happen if we saw Him as Moses or Isaiah or John or Peter did?

“Now all the people were in a dispute throughout all the tribes of Israel, saying, ‘The king saved us from the hand of our enemies, he delivered us from the hand of the Philistines, and now he has fled from the land because of Absalom. But Absalom, whom we anointed over us, has died in battle. Now therefore, why do you say nothing about bringing back the king?’ So King David sent to Zadok and Abiathar the priests, saying, ‘Speak to the elders of Judah, saying, “Why are you the last to bring the king back to his house, since the words of all Israel have come to the king, to his very house?”’” (2 Samuel 19:9-11).

King David, himself a Christ-type, was sending a message to those with spiritual influence and authority: “Why are you the last to bring back the king?”

That ought to be the cry of all our hearts today as well — “Bring back the King!” Weeping endures for a night, but you and I have the hope that, as was the case with David, our nation will recognize what has been lost and will once again bring back the King! Bring back the King who heals, who delivers, who gives sight. Bring back the King who opens prison doors and puts a new song in every heart. Bring back the King into our streets, our schools and our colleges!

Of course, it begins with you and me — in our personal lives. We must get off our rooftops and get our eyes off things they should not be on. Where we have failed, where we have drifted or lost zeal for the kingdom of God — bring back the King! Where our heart for the lost and poor has grown cold — bring back the King! And I assure you that when the King comes home, there will be joy, dancing, and shouts of victory unlike anything we have ever known! Hallelujah!

Carter Conlon joined the pastoral staff of Times Square Church in 1994 at the invitation of the founding pastor, David Wilkerson, and was appointed Senior Pastor in 2001.

You may say, “I think I’m well prepared for any storm. After all, I’m a faithful witness for the Lord. I’m not ashamed of the gospel and I live a clean, moral life. I tithe, I read my Bible, and I attend church regularly.”

It is possible to be a believer and yet remain distant from the Lord. The fact is, if you don’t spend time with Him — if you don’t draw on His strength — your heart will faint. Your words will have little or no power or results and your testimony will be lifeless. Why? Because you will have drifted away from your source of strength.

Don’t make the mistake of measuring your walk with Christ by your good works or ministry rather than by His presence in your life.

You simply cannot be more pleasing to the Lord — more fulfilled or at the center of His will — than you are through the simple act of drawing near to Him in prayer.

We know this from the apostle Paul’s life. Paul faced many hard, perilous times. This godly man knew what it meant to lose everything: to be hungry and thirsty; to suffer deprivation; to be in poverty; to be abandoned; to lie chained in a dark, damp prison cell, alone and forsaken even by some of his close friends.

But Paul did not faint. In fact, the apostle grew stronger through each trial. How could this be? It happened because he knew this secret to getting and maintaining true strength.

Paul testified: “At my first defense no one stood with me, but all forsook me. May it not be charged against them. But the Lord stood with me and strengthened me . . . And the Lord will deliver me from every evil work and preserve me for His heavenly kingdom. To Him be glory forever and ever” (2 Timothy 4:16–18, my italics).