“I have been reminded of your sincere faith, which first lived in your grandmother Lois and in your mother Eunice and, I am persuaded now lives in you also.” 2 Timothy 1:5
When I walk through my community I have a habit of praying for the households I walk past. At some houses though, I can only wonder if someone really lives there. There are two kinds of houses that fit this category and both don’t look “lived in.” There is the house of perfection–absolutely no signs–toys, gardens, lawn chairs, projects in progress– to reveal the character or life of the residents; and then there is the house of disrepair–all signs point to abandonment. Now I know that there is a chance that people are making a life in each. I have to look longer to know how to pray.
Paul indicates that he has been looking too. However he watches people for faith. Its first things first. Paul has a search light for faith. He wants to know if faith is living inside Timothy. And after watching he is confident, persuaded, that Timothy has faith. But more than that, Paul is confident that faith lives in Timothy. To Paul, faith is a particular quality that resides in a person. It is a living relationship with Jesus Christ. It is a relationship characterized by grace, trust, obedience, dependence, and risk. Faith pushes into all the edges and corners of a person’s life. Every space in the house is occupied by faith.
Jesus indicates that the key to a sustained and fruitful relationship with God is the issue of being occupied. 43 “When an evil spirit comes out of a man, it goes through arid places seeking rest and does not find it. 44 Then it says, ‘I will return to the house I left.’ When it arrives, it finds the house unoccupied, swept clean and put in order. 45 Then it goes and takes with it seven other spirits more wicked than itself, and they go in and live there. And the final condition of that man is worse than the first. That is how it will be with this wicked generation.” Matthew 12:43-45
It is possible for people to have cleaned up lives on the outside; however, without having a life occupied by faith–a living relationship with Jesus Christ–they are a shell waiting for a wreck.
