JOIN THE JOURNEY JR.
Families Abiding in Jesus together
With shorter reading assignments and kid-specific focus areas, Join The Journey Jr. is designed to help parents disciple their kids and engage with Scripture in the best ways for their age.
This month's memory verse
And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.
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Therefore do not be ashamed of the testimony about our Lord, nor of me his prisoner, but share in suffering for the gospel by the power of God,
6This is why I remind you to fan into flames the spiritual gift God gave you when I laid my hands on you. 7For God has not given us a spirit of fear and timidity, but of power, love, and self-discipline.
8So never be ashamed to tell others about our Lord. And don’t be ashamed of me, either, even though I’m in prison for him. With the strength God gives you, be ready to suffer with me for the sake of the Good News. 9For God saved us and called us to live a holy life. He did this, not because we deserved it, but because that was his plan from before the beginning of time—to show us his grace through Christ Jesus. 10And now he has made all of this plain to us by the appearing of Christ Jesus, our Savior. He broke the power of death and illuminated the way to life and immortality through the Good News. 11And God chose me to be a preacher, an apostle, and a teacher of this Good News.
12That is why I am suffering here in prison. But I am not ashamed of it, for I know the one in whom I trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard what I have entrusted to him* until the day of his return.
13Hold on to the pattern of wholesome teaching you learned from me—a pattern shaped by the faith and love that you have in Christ Jesus. 14Through the power of the Holy Spirit who lives within us, carefully guard the precious truth that has been entrusted to you.
Read together: 2 Timothy 1:6-14
Paul was in prison for telling people about Jesus. He wrote to Timothy, a young leader who might have felt afraid to speak up. Paul reminded him that God gives his people power, love, and self-control, not fear (2 Timothy 1:7).
Paul told Timothy not to be ashamed, which means feeling embarrassed or afraid to be connected to someone or something. Being ashamed can make us quiet about Jesus. It can prevent us from wanting to talk about him and how he died on the cross to save all people.
But Paul wasn’t ashamed, even in a prison cell. He said, “I know whom I have believed” (2 Timothy 1:12). Paul wasn’t brave because he was strong. He was brave because he knew Jesus, who saved us by his grace and defeated death (2 Timothy 1:9-10).