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VS. March 24, 2025 Devotional

by David Joynt on March 24, 2025


1 TIMOTHY 6:7 | 7 for we brought nothing into the world, so that we can take nothing out of it;

 

This verse draws us a double scene to consider. A tiny baby emerges from the womb, squinting and calling out its tender cries. An old man or woman takes a final breath, and then is being
embalmed prior to burial. Neither one owns or possesses anything. The child brings no wealth into this world, the senior takes nothing to the next. No one truly owns anything permanently. Instead we are temporary custodians of things, impermanent stewards of resources that will belong to others and ultimately belong to God.

 

Accumulation, on whatever scale, does not change this stark reality. Believing that it does is a folly that encourages greed and stifles charity.

 

What do you hope to bring to the next life?

 

 

Gracious God,

Temper my acquisitiveness with realism. Help me accumulate the things that really count in the Kingdom.

Amen.

 

About the Author
David Joynt

Dave Joynt began his service as a pastor at Valley Presbyterian Church in Paradise Valley, Arizona in September 2014. This meant a move away from the Northeast, where he has a long history, growing up in Bethlehem, Pennsylvania and then serving congregations in Delaware and New Jersey for a total of 23 years.

Dave was nurtured in a great church in Bethlehem where his parents, Anne and Carey, served as elders. He graduated in classics from Lehigh University where his Father taught, and then from Oxford, where he met his wife Julia. Ordained in 1988, he completed a Ph.D. from Princeton Theological Seminary in 1993.

He and Julia have a son, Tristan, and a daughter, Madeleine.

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