Encouraging Words Devotional

How To Persevere When You Don’t Want To

In the apostle Peter's second letter to the early Christians, he lists five qualities that we should try to evidence in our lives: he urges us to add to our "faith virtue, to virtue knowledge, to knowledge self-control, to self-control perseverance" (2 Peter 1:5, 6 NKJV).

How To Walk Into The Unknown With Peace

Nik Wallenda is a member of the world-famous seven-generation Wallenda family of high wire performers. He's famous for his walks on the high wire across the Grand Canyon, Niagara Falls, between skyscrapers high above Times Square, New York, and a nearly 32-minute walk across the fire-y Masaya volcano in Nicaragua. Nik's book titled Facing Fear tells of his conquest not only of these perilous walks but of his conquest of fear, especially after the collapse of an eight-person high wire pyramid in Sarasota, Florida that nearly killed all eight of them. After the accident, Nik had to conquer his fears or he would never walk the high wire again.

This Is Why You Should Put Your Trust In God

Bernadette longed for a child. If you've ever been in her shoes, you totally understand what she was experiencing. Eventually she became pregnant but, sadly, at the same time, her husband was battling what turned out to be terminal cancer.  The good part to her story is that before her husband passed away, she gave birth to a healthy baby boy. 

Where You Can Find Strength For Today's Demands

Police chaplain Dick Johnson recalls a night when he was doing his regular radio show on a station in Okinawa, Japan. He was playing Christian music and speaking words of encouragement, when the phone rang and a listener shared, "My life is being drained with difficult experiences, and my strength is gone. The comments you made and the music that followed led me to call and ask for help."

How To Find Joy In Your Grief

Gail's aunt Georgia, a widow who taught handicapped children, knew what it was to experience tragedy. She had married Walter Dickens, a railroad train conductor, and after several months she became pregnant. But their baby died soon after birth. While she was still in the hospital recovering from the delivery, she was notified that Walter had been killed in a train accident.

The Only Way To Heaven

With our world being in the state it is in these days, heaven looks more and more attractive. Sometimes I can hardly wait to go there. Who doesn't like to the read the Bible's description of streets of pure gold, and of gates each made of a single pearl!  Even more, I like to read that in heaven "God shall wipe away all tears from their eyes; and there shall be no more death, neither sorrow, nor crying, neither shall there be any more pain: for the former things are passed away" (Revelation 21:4 KJV).

How Do I Find Satisfaction In God?

Professor and author C. S. Lewis said most human beings sell themselves short in this life when they could have so much more. Wrote Lewis,

We are half-hearted creatures, fooling about with drink and sex and ambition when infinite joy is offered us, like an ignorant child who wants to go on making mud pies in a slum because he cannot imagine what is meant by the offer of a holiday at sea. We are far too easily pleased.[1] 

 

[1] C. S. Lewis, The Weight of Glory, https://www.goodreads.com/work/quotes/1629232-the-weight-of-glory,  accessed February 21, 2021.

 

Why Should I Wait On God?

Are you at a crossroads in your life right now?  You're faced with a decision regarding your future? Perhaps you've been laid off your job and don't know where to go from here. Or perhaps you're thinking of getting married but you're not entirely sure if you've truly met Mr. or Miss Right-for-you.  God has promised in Psalm 23 that He leads us "in paths of righteousness for his name's sake." But just how do you find that path that God wants you to take?

What Does It Mean To Have Hope

What is the difference between faith and hope?  Both words are used in the Bible quite frequently. Do you remember that 1 Corinthians 13 says, "Now abide faith, hope, love"

NKJV. "The word faith is used in the sense of ' trust ', whereas the word hope is used in the sense of 'anticipation'."[1] Hope always involves waiting for something that is as yet unseen but something we can count on. Romans 8:24 says, "Hope that is seen is no hope at all. Who hopes for what they already have?" NKJV. Yes, hope always involves waiting, but hope means we can wait patiently and confidently, knowing that what we are anticipating will eventually be reality.  "Hope is a confident expectation that naturally stems from faith. Hope is a peaceful assurance that something that hasn't happened yet will indeed happen."[2]

 

 

[1] https://www.differencebetween.com/difference-between-faith-and-vs-hope/, accessed 1/26/2021. 

[2] https://www.gotquestions.org/difference-faith-hope.html, accessed 1-26, 2021.

 

How Do I Put My Roots In Jesus?

My all-time favorite fruit is the Filipino mango. While mango trees can live for 300 years, how do they stay standing when typhoon-force winds blow? There's only one answer: their roots. The taproot of a mango tree can go down twenty feet deep into the soil, and, in addition, mangoes grow wide-spreading feeder roots that penetrate deeply.