Colossians 3:15 English Standard Version (ESV) And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful.

VOTD is verse of the day, from Biblegateway.

Not today. Being sleep deprived makes it very difficult to maintain peace in the heart. Praying doesn’t seem to help. There are too many little annoyances one after the other after the other.

That does not give us any right to take it out on others. It must be someone’s fault. That is the flesh reacting poorly, even if it is true.

We are all called into one body so if one part suffers the whole body suffers but it isn’t fair to inflict our pain on others.

At this time perhaps the peace of Christ is being given the strength to not scream.

The resolve to do even normal routines is weakened due to lack of sleep. Quality of effort shows lack of sleep. Perhaps the peace of Christ when sleep deprived is making the effort even when you do not feel like it.

In season and out of season, right?

Maybe we are not alone in all this.

2 Timothy 3:1-9 English Standard Version (ESV)

Godlessness in the Last Days

3 But understand this, that in the last days there will come times of difficulty. ² For people will be lovers of self, lovers of money, proud, arrogant, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, ³ heartless, unappeasable, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not loving good, ⁴ treacherous, reckless, swollen with conceit, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God, ⁵ having the appearance of godliness, but denying its power. Avoid such people. ⁶ For among them are those who creep into households and capture weak women, burdened with sins and led astray by various passions, ⁷ always learning and never able to arrive at a knowledge of the truth. ⁸ Just as Jannes and Jambres opposed Moses, so these men also oppose the truth, men corrupted in mind and disqualified regarding the faith. ⁹ But they will not get very far, for their folly will be plain to all, as was that of those two men.

I was tempted to modify verse 6 were Paul identifies “weak women” because the truth is that all of us can be misled if we are not careful. So often I read this chapter of 2 Timothy and I am drawn into the long list of behaviors of people who act out primarily because they love themselves. At the end of the list are some telling words that contradict the preceding list, they appear to be godly.

How could anyone perceive people that demonstrated that long list of abuses as godly? Perhaps that is because we who see this as a contradiction are not misled. We see those abuses and must resist the temptation to scream out “the end is near”. The truth is that Christians have been looking for Christ’s return since the first century. Abuses noted have occurred before and continue. As Solomon said in Ecclesiastes, there is nothing new under the sun.

That list and the associated timing can be something to mislead us if we do not focus on the truth.

Our call to spread the gospel and make disciples must increase if we believe the end is near.