2 Timothy Chapter 3

Well, you know you’re getting a little spiritually “GREEDY” when you wake up and cannot wait to write a piece on another chapter — and whoa! After reading THIS one, I can’t wait to talk about the TRUTHS in it — so totally cool — and FUN.

Especially when you get to start off with this little concept:

“WIGGLING WORMS.”

LOL 🙂

Does anyone else remember that song from kindergarten days?

“Nobody likes me, everybody hates me, I think I’ll go eat worms!!”

Oh my and oh yes! It was one of THE BEST ones because it always brought a little smile to my face when I sang it. 😉

But today, we actually READ about some worms — and some women — and how the worst worms are the ones we find … in our MIND.

What? 

It’s true. Please follow me through.

So, the chapter starts with all the nasty, no-good “other people” out there who are just oh-so-waiting to oh-so-drag you down, do you wrong and make your days so not strong. They are really into some seriously bad stuff, the kind of “stuff” that is bad for the soul (verse 2).

And I get this is true, but there are two ways to VIEW it. One is to FOCUS on others as “WORMS” in your world. And the other way? Is to focus on the “WORMS” IN YOU.

Nothing is worse than waiting for someone else to change their “wicked worming ways” to “change” YOUR world. And if I look at the “SPHERE of INFLUENCE” concept, that first way of “waiting for others” really goes the opposite of that.

SO, the “Sphere of Influence” is all about expanding rings of circles, starting with YOU In the center, then other people outside of that and then finally? The things you really cannot DO anything to change/control (e.g. the weather).

And yet, it has been proven that the things we “complain” about the most and let affect us the most are in the rings farther from US. It really makes NO sense to approach life this way, except that almost everyone is doing it already.

Problem is, I think GOD has a totally different approach.

‘Cause when I start putting HIM in the picture, HE only has one place to GO, and that is right into the CENTER of the CIRCLE. 

Yes, HE truly has the true POWER of INFLUENCE on us, for us and IN US (verse 14-15), if we tap into believing it, to create THE real changes in our world. I don’t want to be the woman who allows a “woman of misbelief and disbelief” into my head (verse 6). I spent enough of my life blaming others for their influence on ME when really, it was all about what I chose to ALLOW and PUT in! 

Yes, there are two different points of view on this. Do the worms enter my world from what other people do and say and how that “directs” my way? OR is it up to ME to remove the “worms of BOGUS belief” from MY brain and retrain it to keep in only the TRUTHS that I read in HIS WORD (verse 10)?

WHOA!!!! I SO remember when I got that second concept, let it soak in and really began to think through WHO I was listening to (verse 15).

Yes, I think the most “terrible times” (verse 1) are when I allow “worms” into my mind (some UNintentionally, some INtentionally) because then my mind becomes SPIRITUALLY WEAK. It leaves me solely focused on seeking my own pursuits, pleasures and gains (verse 2). And eventually leads me to some serious PAIN.  

But that “PAIN” reminds me of the “Fact” that the “biggest liar to me really is ME,” and it is up to ME to choose what I will believe — or NOT BELIEVE — even when I feel differently. Yes, the best “struggle and suffer” I can go through is RETRAINING my brain to only allow in GOD’S TRUTH (verse 10), but once I begin to do that? I can see more and more MISBELIEFS in myself … and one that came from others too (verse 9). 

By putting GOD and HIS POWER to DO ALL in the center of ALL my INFLUENCE, it allows US to slowly see any “worms of misbelief” we might have and trust HIM to help us remove them. GOD will DO the RESCUE (verse 11) when we start to let go of the old LIE (verse 7).

It is NOT others’ role to make us “whole” or be seen as our “OBSTACLE” (verse 13). NOPE, it is time to view our own WORMS ONLY as the spiritual growth OPPORTUNITY to learn and grow from one place and one place only: God and HIS WORD (verse 16). ‘Cause HE will equip US to conquer those “worms” (verse 17) — one wiggle at a time.

Carol 🙂