If God Says You’re Qualified, You Are!

“Don’t let anyone look down on you.” 1Ti 4:12 NIV

You shouldn’t be overlooked because of your age, your gender, your nationality, your education or your financial status. People will try to put you down, but if you trust God He will lift you up. Timothy started preaching in his teens. He became Paul’s traveling companion, which was no small honor. But in those days society said you didn’t come into maturity until you were thirty, therefore Timothy wasn’t qualified for leadership. Since Timothy was facing criticism, Paul wrote, “Don’t let anyone look down on you because you are young.” With God it’s not the length of your life that qualifies you, but the depth of it. Look at Timothy’s credentials: “From childhood you have known the Holy Scriptures” (2Ti 3:15 NKJV). Timothy was nurtured in God’s Word and grounded in the truth. “When I call to remembrance the genuine faith that is in you, which dwelt first in your grandmother Lois and your mother Eunice, and I am persuaded is in you also” (2Ti 1:5 NKJV). So Paul writes to the Philippian church and says: “I trust in the Lord Jesus to send Timothy to you shortly…For I have no one like-minded, who will sincerely care for your state. For all seek their own, not the things which are of Christ Jesus. But you know his proven character, that as a son with his father he served with me in the gospel” (Php 2:19-22 NKJV). The right to work in God’s service is not determined by your years on earth, but by your experience with God, your growth in grace and in His Word.

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