Daily Dose of Hope

April 23, 2026

Scripture: 1 Timothy 5

Prayer: Dear Heavenly Father, I come before you today with humility. You are holy, you are perfect, and I am painfully flawed. Forgive me, Lord, for the way I fall short over and over again. Forgive me for not being loving, patient, and kind. Jesus, I want to follow your example. I want to have a clean and pure heart. How I need you. Create in me a pure heart, Lord, and renew a right spirit within me. I love you. Amen.

Welcome back to the Daily Dose of Hope, the devotional and podcast that complements the New Hope daily Bible reading plan. We are currently walking through the letters of Paul and we are in 1 Timothy, our eleventh letter.

Today's reading is 1 Timothy 5. Paul is back to giving very specific instructions for how the church is to treat its people. Again, this is culture-specific and seems to be in reaction to particular situations. He wants to be sure seniors are respected, that there are specific guidelines around the care of old and young widows, that the elders/pastors are given proper reverence, and that Timothy drinks a little wine to settle his upset stomach.

Overall, Paul is demonstrating that he cares. He loves Timothy and he loves the church. He wants the church to deal with its conflicts and problems in an effective way. Sometimes, Paul's solutions seem a little odd to us in 2026 but we can be assured that Paul was quite revolutionary in his thinking. Finally, his primary motivation was to lead more people to Jesus.

A few questions for us:

-Do we have this kind of love and care for those in our church family? What do we do well and what needs to be improved?

-What kinds of advice do we give today that might seem really strange to the early church?

-What is our primary motivation as we deal with issues at church? Is it to lead more people to Jesus or something else?

Blessings,

Pastor Vicki