This study looks at two letters the Apostle Paul wrote to his protégé, Timothy—letters to a young man whom Paul regarded as a son. Paul had trained Timothy to be a pastor, and from these letters we know Paul had left Timothy as his replacement in the church at Ephesus while Paul moved on to another country. Timothy apparently felt inadequate to replace Paul in this role. After all, who wouldn’t feel this way if replacing such a highly-educated man as the pastor of one of the first churches he had begun in Asia? This study focuses on the twin traits in our Christian lives of faithfulness and endurance. They are not traits which can either save us or keep us saved—they are important because they affect our relationship with Jesus. Faithfulness means we intentionally choose God’s way of doing things or knowing things or following him. Endurance means we keep on being faithful even when we don’t believe we have enough information, ability, time, or anything else to be able to complete the task He has been given us. We, then, look at faithfulness as the choice, and endurance as the passion, or maybe sometimes just as our determination. Our Christian life is rarely about experience or happiness or feeling good about who we are or what we’re doing—God asks us to walk by faith and not by sight (2 Corinthians 5:7). This study is about how we keep going when we can neither feel nor see God in our life or in our work.
