Encouragement!

Jim:

I found the readings today to be very encouraging.

Jeremiah 30:18-22
Verse 22 is perhaps the most encouraging verse of all today: "And you shall be my people, and I will be your God." There are some days when I really need to know that God claims me despite everything else. And God does claim us, and God loves us, and God wants what's best for us all.

Colossians 1:24-2:7
Here I focused on verses 6 and 7: "As you therefore have received Christ Jesus the Lord, continue to live your lives in him, rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving." I also need to remember, at all times, to be thankful to God for all God's gifts. So even when we hit those rough spots in our lives and things are looking bleak, God's grace abounds, and so should our prayers of thanksgiving for all that God has done for us, especially for calling us to be among God's people.

Luke 6:27-38
Here I took note of verses 35 and 36 which say, "But love your enemies, do good, and lend expecting nothing in return. Your reward will be great, and you will be children of the Most High; for he is kind to the ungrateful and the wicked. Be merciful, just as your Father is merciful." All too often I am one of the ungrateful, and I suppose my sinfulness does not set me as far from the wicked as I would like to be. But God loves me and cares for me anyway, which is reason enough to abound in thanksgiving, and to seek to do those things God has called me to do, regardless of how difficult they are.