Our Profiting

By Aderanti Olowoshoke

“13. Until I come, devote yourself to the public reading of Scripture, to preaching and to teaching.

14. Do not neglect your gift, which was given you through prophecy when the body of elders laid their hands on you.

15. Be diligent in these matters; give yourself wholly to them, so that everyone may see your progress.”

1 Timothy 4:13-15

The Apostle Paul admonished Timothy in the passage above to devote himself to some spiritual exercises, and not to neglect his gift. Doing these would make Timothy’s progress (profiting) obvious to everyone. We can also say doing these things would result in an increase for Timothy.

Again, we see in Apostle Paul’s letter to the Corinthian Church that Paul planted, Apollos watered and God gave the increase (1 Corinthians 3:6).

From these two scriptures, we can see that increase comes with planting and watering (i.e. reading and studying the word, as well as fanning our gifting through praying in the Holy Ghost). God is EVER INTERESTED in OUR INCREASE, but we also see that having our hearts as a good ground for God’s word can facilitate our increase/profiting.

As we begin to round up the first quarter of 2019, ask yourself “Is my profiting evident to all”? “Can I see an increase in my life”? If your profiting is not evident and you can’t see any increase, it couldn’t be because God does not want you to increase. God always wants the best for us! So it may be worth taking extra time to sow the seed of God’s word into your heart and watering it with the Word of God as well as praying in the Holy Ghost. As you do and hold fast to your confession, your increase will become evident to all.