Category Archives: Encouragement

Encouragement

Living for Today

We fall into a situation so many times where we regret the past or worry about tomorrow. I personally forget to live in the present and enjoy what God has given me today. Concerning the past, we can learn from our mistakes, concerning the future, we can prepare and learn to trust God.

Sunrise near the Columbia River

Sunrise near the Columbia River

Here is the attitude we need for the future from 1 Peter 5:7. “Casting all your care upon him; for he careth for you.”  So our attitude needs to be one of trusting God for the future.

Our attitude should be thanking God for what we have today and not wishing for things to be different:   This is the day which the Lord hath made; we will rejoice and be glad in it  Psalm 118:24.   We should have a thankful heart as Paul talks about in 1 Thessalonians 5:8 In every thing give thanks:for this is the will of God in Christ Jesus concerning you.

Live in the now, thanking God for what we have, what He has given us in people, friends, family, relationships, spiritual blessings and material stuff. (Yes, even thank God for our stuff)

Thank Him for negative and hard things that teach us to thank and trust Him.

Sunset on the Columbia River

Sunset on the Columbia River

Thank God for the grace given to us through His Son Jesus Christ who took all our sins away and made a way for us to come to God just as we are. John 1:17 Grace came by Jesus Christ.

A 16th century monk in writing to comfort his wife said “Pray, and let God worry”. That was Martin Luther who did much to bring people back to the Bible and back to Jesus Christ.

Paul shares his attitude towards the past in Phil 3:13. but this one thing I do, forgetting those things which are behind, and reaching forth unto those things which are before, I press toward the mark for the prize of the high calling of God in Christ Jesus.

Deer in the trees

Deer in the trees

We can learn to accept moving or not moving.  We can accept who we are in God. We can accept what God has given us in talents, friends, relationships, spiritual and material stuff.  We can accept our social and financial level in society, and not wish to be somewhere else. We can accept our marriage as from God, there is not a better mate for us. God did that just right. He has given us exactly what we need.

When we don’t accept we can easily fall into regret for the past and then carry a root of bitterness going forward. Eventually this makes us get old really fast and makes our life (not the other person) miserable. Do not get bitter, it will destroy you.

So our attitude towards the past and future is important.  When it comes to the past we should forgive and forget. Thanking God for all He has given us.  When it comes to the future we trust God and refuse to worry or carry a grudge.  This leaves us living right now in the present thanking God for who He is and all that He has done for us.    For the past, we always learn from our mistakes, for the future, we prepare as best we can and trust God.

Here is a simple way to pray:  “Father God, thank You for what we have, what You have given us and what You will yet provide in the years to come. I give this day to You, I trust You and rely on You for all that we need”.

California Beach

California Beach

The best devotional videos are at www.AnimatedFaith.com

God Does Not Give Up on Us

Everything in the garden was wonderful between God and man. But once sin same in there was a problem, but God does not give up on us. God made a way through His Son Jesus Christ for us to come back to God.

So watch this short video on “God Does Not Give Up on Us”

God never gives up on us.  God loves us, He cares for us.  God is thinking about us every day.  We were created for a purpose, and God does not loose sight of that purpose. He cares so much that He sent His Son Jesus Christ.

God Does Not Give Up on Us

God Does Not Give Up on Us

Hard Events Help us Grow in God

Hard events of life help us grow in God. Faith is tested by the events of life. Everything is under the hand of God, both the easy and the hard.

Hard events help us grow in God

Hard events help us grow in God

Almost every person mentioned in the Bible had difficult times. God used every event to bring this person more in the faith and belief of God. God became more real through every situation. At one point the Bible seems just a good book about God, but events in life will make the Bible become part of our life and living.

Insecurities help us grow in Faith

Insecurities help us grow in Faith

Even material insecurities help us grow in Faith.

Consider Elijah in the Old Testament who went through various situations to prove to him that God is real and present, and that God actually cares for what is going on in life. At one point a brook that Elijah was near dried up.  What was he to do. Well, God provided for him. He just needed to keep his eyes on God.  The dried up brook helped Elijah to trust in God for His provision.  God eventually provided, but not in the way Elijah expected.

The providence of God in our lives is sometimes the best education we can get in the ways of God. Even Peter in the New Testament got distracted with something he thought would be great, but God needed to teach him a lesson in looking at Jesus and not being distracted. Consider the points in this video about “Listen to Jesus”.

Peter was the top, number one disciple of Jesus, but he had a lot to learn. It seems he was always being corrected by Jesus. Hard things and hard words helped him grow in faith.

It’s so easy to get distracted with great religious things. Jesus is the main subject and focus of the New Testament. Even the chosen disciples like Peter could get distracted with doing something “great” for God and miss the Son of God, Jesus, who was standing right there.

So watch this short video on “Listen to Jesus”

In Matthew 17,  Jesus takes His top three disciples up to a mountain, and there Jesus was transfigured or glorified. He probably looked like He might appear in heaven. His top three disciples were Peter, James and John. Peter had a great idea, but God did not agree with the idea and so God spoke from the heavens. God said “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him“. Too many times we have a “great idea” for God. But many times God does not agree and may speak to us and tell us to just “Listen to Jesus”. So how do we “listen to Jesus”, the easiest and best way is to just read the Bible.

Jesus Prays for Us – Encouragement to Go on with Christ

Encouragement to go on with Jesus – that could also be the title of the book of Hebrews.

Jesus is praying for us to be encouraged to move forward with Him.

The author of Hebrews is trying to get the readers to get moving in a positive direction toward Jesus. The writer of Hebrews did not want the believers to go back, shrink back or accidentally fall back to an older way of tradition and legalism. So this verse mentions that Jesus is praying for us. Jesus is praying for us to be encouraged to move forward with Him.

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore He is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by Him, seeing He ever liveth to make intercession for them. So have confidence in Jesus’ prayer for us.

In the New Testament,  everything focuses around Jesus. Jesus is the focus and the way to God. There is no other way.

Here is a short devotional video on “Jesus Prays for Us”

The word “uttermost” indicates the salvation Jesus gives us handles everything, so we can have complete confidence He will bring us to full complete maturity,  and not let us slide back to an old dead way such as legalism.

The phrase “He is able also to save” means that Jesus, because He is fully God and fully man, has the ability to save us and free us from sin. Here “save” is not just saving from Hell, but saving us from a sinful life.

The phrase “come unto God by Him” indicates that Jesus is the mediator between us and God. God is Holy and we are sinful. How could we touch or pray to the holy God except by Jesus, who because of His perfect sacrifice, on the cross fully made a way for us to come to God.

The phrase “He ever liveth to make intercession“, means He is constantly praying for us. Don’t worry,  Jesus is praying for us. He knows our every need.

I believe Paul wrote the book of Hebrews, but I could be wrong. Many students of the Bible do not agree that Paul wrote it. Some think Paul wrote it and some do not think he wrote it. To my realization the level of understanding of the place of the Old and New Testament, and the understanding of the unique place Jesus has in God’s overall plan and economy dictates that a very well Bible educated and understanding person wrote this book of Hebrews.

The New Testament represents a transition in what God expects and demands. In the Old Testament it was keeping the law, in the New Testament it is believing on Jesus. So we move from legalism to grace.

It is my theory that the letter of Hebrews would be better received by believers in Paul’s day if it was not perceived to have been written by Paul. This is just my theory.

A great transitional verse is John 1:17 where John says: For the law was given by Moses, but grace and truth came by Jesus Christ. So we move from the “law” to “grace”. So which writer/author of the Bible really understood this and could express it as we see in the book of Hebrews. I think only Paul, but I realize there are other considerations.

Paul had the best understanding of the transition to the new and could wade through the Old Testament Jewish ceremonial law (given by Moses) and interpret in in light of what Jesus did on the cross.  Please look at Romans 8:3  For what the law could not do, in that it was weak through the flesh, God sending his own Son in the likeness of sinful flesh, and for sin, condemned sin in the flesh.  Again here we see the law is not able to save man, so God sent His son. Trying to keep the law and legalism will not take us on to maturity in our Christian life. Only grace takes us on.

Also Paul said this in Galatians 2:20  Christ liveth in me:and the life which I now live in the flesh I live by the faith of the Son of God, who loved me, and gave himself for me. Paul was so clear the new way is just Jesus. The new way is not a compromise between the old and new,  and not something added to the old. It is just Jesus as the way, the truth, and the life

Hebrews 7:25 Wherefore he is able also to save them to the uttermost that come unto God by him, seeing he ever liveth to make intercession for them

This verse in Hebrews indicates that Jesus is praying for us to go on with Jesus and not go back or compromise to an older way such as the law or legalism.

Jesus Prays for Us – Encouragement to Go on with Christ

Jesus Prays for Us – Encouragement to Go on with Christ

Be Encouraged.

God Never Gives Up on Us

God Never Gives Up on Us. Don’t worry, we may fail, but God finds a way to restore us. God never forgets the purpose He created us for. We were make for a purpose and God knows that. So don’t worry about failure, God will make a way.

So watch this short devotional video on “God Never Gives Up on Us “

God make a way through His son Jesus Christ to take care of the sin issue between us and God. Sin and failure cannot stop God’s purpose with us.  We may give up, but God does not give up on us.

Consider some failures in the Bible:  Adam, Abraham, Peter, (and us).  We all are sinners, so God has made a way through His son Jesus Christ to bring us back to God and back to His purpose.

We may give up, but God does not give up on us.  

Priest Lake, Idaho

Priest Lake, Idaho

Consider Philippians 1:6  Being confident of this very thing, that he which hath begun a good work in you will perform it until the day of Jesus Christ

Isa 42:3  A bruised reed shall he not break,
and the smoking flax shall he not quench:
he shall bring forth judgment unto truth

God Never Gives Up on Us

God Never Gives Up on Us

Isa 54:10  For the mountains shall depart,
and the hills be removed;
but my kindness shall not depart from thee,
neither shall the covenant of my peace be removed,
saith the Lord that hath mercy on thee

God Never Gives Up on Us

God Never Gives Up on Us

Intimacy Between God and Man

God loves us. God is love. It is hard to find a religion where God loves man.
God wants an intimate loving relationship between God and man. When man sins, God loves to restore us. He does not give up on us. The Bible is about God and man.

We as sinful man need a mediator between us and a holy sinless God, and that mediator is Jesus Christ.

Please watch this short video on “Intimacy Between God and Man”

John 14:21
He that hath my commandments, and keepeth them, he it is that loveth me: and he that loveth me shall be loved of my Father, and I will love him, and will manifest myself to him.

John 3:16  For God so loved the world, that he gave his only begotten Son, that whosoever believeth in him should not perish, but have everlasting life.

Dead Sea, Israel

Dead Sea, Israel

Listen To Jesus

It’s so easy to get distracted with good religious things and miss Jesus. Jesus is the focus of the New Testament. Jesus is the main subject. Even the good disciples like Peter could get distracted with doing something “great” for God and miss the Son of God, Jesus, who was standing right there.

So watch this short video on “Listen to Jesus”

In Matthew 17,  Jesus takes His top three disciples up to a mountain, and there Jesus was transfigured or glorified. He probably looked like He might appear in heaven. His top three disciples were Peter, James and John. Peter had a great idea, but God did not agree with the idea and so God spoke from the heavens. God said “This is my beloved Son, Hear Him“. Too many times we have a “great idea” for God. But many times God does not agree and may speak to us and tell us to just “Listen to Jesus”. So how do we “listen to Jesus”, the easiest and best way is to just read the Bible.