Mtr Kelli Joyce

“I am not ashamed, for I know the one in whom I have put my trust, and I am sure that he is able to guard until that day what I have entrusted to him.”

Dear Friends in Christ,

I firmly believe that hymns are one of the most wonderful ways of learning scripture and theology. Sometimes I will be reading scripture and come across a passage I’m unfamiliar with, only to realize that I do know it - because it’s the basis for some hymn or another. This verse from 1 Timothy is one such example.

When I was a child, I learned a hymn called “I know whom I have believèd.” Each verse would reflect on various things we do not and cannot know about our lives and the future, and then the refrain would come - “but I know whom I have believed / and am persuaded that he is able / to keep that which I’ve committed / unto him against that day!”

As a child, I wasn’t fully able to parse the grammar of the lyrics, but that didn’t stop me from understanding the key takeaway: no amount of uncertainty about facts or the future could outweigh the surpassing value and comfort of knowing the person of Jesus, and knowing that whatever might come, Jesus would remain trustworthy.

It’s still good for me to remember that I know whom I have believed - the one who has promised to never leave or forsake. The one who said “none shall snatch them out of my hand.” And I am still, somehow, persuaded that he will keep and care for all that I entrust to him, not just now, but forever. What is Christ calling you to believe? What is Christ calling you to entrust to him?

In peace,
Mtr Kelli