Enduring Hardship
By A.W. Tozer

      It is possible to be beaten until you are numb. You can smile and praise the Lord and say, "Jesus, I my cross have taken," for a while. But then you are slowly beaten until you are numb, and you get into a sort of a rut where you cannot fight back. Timothy had been with Paul a long time, and Paul had been in so much trouble so much of the time. Timothy was tagging along behind in the same trouble, and Paul had noticed a little temptation to be ashamed of the cross. Essentially, Paul was saying, "Don"t be ashamed of the cross. Don"t shrink from the affliction of the gospel. God has not given us the spirit of fear." Then in Second Timothy 2:3 Paul said, "Endure hardship with us like a good soldier of Christ Jesus." It is as though he might have detected in the young man a little temptation to recoil a bit from the hard life he was called into. Paul knew that Timothy was basically a sound man. He knew Timothy had been reared in a Christian home. He mentioned Timothy"s grandmother, Lois, and his mother, Eunice. The grandmother and mother were both Christians, and good ones. Young Timothy had learned and become a Christian early in life. Paul knew that he was basically sound. But Paul was afraid that the pressure of things and the boredom of always being in the minority might put Timothy in danger of leveling off.