Encouraging Words Devotional

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.

God’s Lesson About Waiting

When as a parent you have young kids, it's as if you're in God's waiting room. You're anticipating the day when the "rosebuds" will mature and bloom. You nurture the plants, feed them, and care for them, but you can't make your kids "bloom."  But eventually God will--if you leave the timing to Him.

This Is What You Can Learn From Sunflowers

Ever see sunflowers growing in someone's garden? Or perhaps by the side of the road? You probably noticed that they almost always face toward the sun. In the morning, young sunflowers face east, slowly turning west as they keep their faces toward the sun throughout the day. Then during the night, they reverse themselves so they are ready to do it again the next day. Why do they do this? Because they innately know that the more sunshine they get, the better they will grow. When sunflower plants are grown indoors, in a short time they stop this habit of always trying to face the sun, and consequently they grow at a slower pace.

Find Out How To Grow In Grace

In the last verse of the last chapter of the last book the apostle Peter ever wrote, he gave us some valuable instruction.  He said, "But grow in the grace and knowledge of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ" (2 Peter 3:18 NIV). What did Peter mean about growing in grace and the knowledge of Jesus?

Learn How To Be Like Jesus

Candy wrote,

"Today I lost my wallet! And I put a big bald spot in my husband's hair! Do you ever have those days where your brain is just not functioning properly???!!! This was me today.... but amidst it all, kindness shone so bright that I have to share about it." 

Discover How God To Use Your Time

The young boy grabbed his lunch, tucked it in his tunic and took off for the countryside to spend the day listening to the Teacher, Jesus of Nazareth. We don't know if he packed his lunch himself or if his mother prepared those five barley loaves and two fish for him. But you can be sure he had no idea that soon his simple lunch was going to be used by Jesus to feed an estimated 15,000 people—5000 men plus women and children.

Why You Need Some Quiet Time

Author Elizabeth George writes,

Here’s a question to think about: If someone asked you to describe the quiet time you had this morning, what would you say? This is exactly the question Dawson Trotman, founder of The Navigators ministry organization, used to ask men and women applying for missions work. He once spent five days interviewing candidates for overseas missionary service. He spent a half hour with each one, asking specifically about their devotional life. Sadly, only one person out of 29 interviewed said his devotional life was a constant in his life.[1]

 

[1] Elizabeth George, A Woman After God’s Own Heart (Eugene, OR: Harvest House Publishers, 1997), 30.

How To Find Light In The Darkness

Dark periods in life come to all of us—times when all you know about God is being put to the test. The Apostle Paul had an experience like that. It started when he had a vision of a man begging him, "Come over to Macedonia and help us" (Acts 16:9). Sensing this was God directing him, Paul and his helper Silas immediately went to Philippi, a leading city of that area.

Here Is What God Forgets

Mention any date since 1980 to Jill Price, and she can tell you what happened to her on that day—"what time she got up, who[m] she met, what she did, what she ate. In effect, she is a human diary," writes Barry Wigmore.[1]