APPROVED TO GOD"

ApPROVED TO GOD"

"Be diligent to pre

sent yourself approved to

God, a worker who does not need to be

ashamed, rightly dividing the word of truth"

(2 Timothy 2:15).

fyou cannot express yourself well on each of your

beliefs, work and study until you can. If you don't,

other people may miss out on the blessings that

come from knowing the truth

. Strive to re-express a

truth of God to yourself

clearly and understandably,

and God will use that same explanation when you

share it with someone else

. But you must be 'willing to

go through God's winepress where the grapes are

crushed. You must struggle, experiment, and rehearse

your words to express God's truth

clearly. Then the

time will come when that very expression will become

God

's wine of strength to someone else. But if you are

not diligent and say, "I'm not going to study and struggle

to express this truth in my own words; I'll just borrow

my words from someone else," then the words will

be of no value to you or to others

. Try to state to yourself

what you believe to be the absolute truth of God,

and you will be allowing God the opportunity to pass it

on through you to someone else.

Always make it a practice to stir your own mind

thoroughly to think through what you have easily

believed

. Your position is not really yours until you

make it yours through suffering and study. The author

or speaker from whom you learn the most is not the

one who teaches you something you didn't know

before, but the one who helps you take a truth with

which you have quietly struggled, give it expression,

and speak it clearly and boldly.