Encouraging Scripture-Fuel Up!

I meditate on your precepts and consider your ways. I delight in your decrees; I will not neglect your word.  Psalm 119:5-6 (NIV)

When we thirsty and afraid of becoming dehydrated, espeically in the heat, we drink some water.  When we're hungry, we go to McDonalds-oops, I mean get something to eat.  When we're tired and need rest, we sleep.  When the gas gage in our car is pointing toward that big E, we go to the gas station and fill up.

So when we are spiritually dry and malnourished, why don't we stop, pull out our Bible, and fuel up?

It sounds so darned simple when I put it that way, but I've certainly been guilty of neglecting that important step myself.  I had to study hard for years to become a good accountant, so why would I think I can just roll out of bed in the morning and be a good Christian?  Not because I'm stupid (not really looking for feedback on that statement) but because I allow the speed and business of life to pull me away. 

God will give us the fuel to not only survive our lives but thrive in them, but we need to make up our minds to pull over out of the fast lane and fill up on His Word on a regular basis before we run dry.

Encouraging Scripture-Actions > Words

 Dear children, let us not love with words or speech but with actions and in truth. 1 John 3:18 (NIV)

Modern day corallaries to this verse would be "if you talk the talk, you need to walk the walk" or "actions speak louder than words."  Don't get me wrong, words are important, but they come back pretty empty if there are not actions to back them up.  If we try to encourage someone yet don't make time for them when they have a problem they need to share, that doesn't help.  If we express concern about someone being hungry or not receiving proper medical attention yet don't offer some type of assistance, either from our own resources or connecting them with someone else, that doesn't help.

Our God talked plenty in the Bible, but He sure did back it up.  He not only talked love, he showed it and through that taught us how to do the same.  Encouraging words are good, but encouragement through our actions is what changes lives.

Encouraging Scripture-A Work In Process

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we all, who with unveiled faces contemplate the Lord’s glory, are being transformed into his image with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.  2 Corinthians 3:17-18 (NIV)

I know I've struggled with bad habits, ones that don't exactly glorify the Lord, and sometimes I feel like I'm trapped in them.  This scripture reminds us that the Lord is constantly at work inside of us, helping to free us from the shackles of our own limitations.  If you fall short today, that doesn't mean tomorrow won't be better--not based on our strength but on His spirit.

We are all a work in process.  We'll wind up with different starting and finishing points, but the more we walk with the Lord and acknowledge His presence in our lives, the more His Spirit will work to make us more closely in His likeness.

Encouraging Scripture-Come Out of the Wilderness

See, I am doing a new thing! Now it springs up; do you not perceive it? I am making a way in the wilderness and streams in the wasteland.--Isaiah 43:19

As you enter the New Year, do you feel like you're stuck in a rut?  Do you feel like you've been wandering around the wilderness with no clear path or destination?  Unfortunately, I'm sure you have a lot of company.  Fortnuately, there is a way out.

God is ready to do a new thing in your life.  He has a plan, and I guarantee you based on personal experience it is better than any plan you can come up with.  Unfortunately, He won't e-mail it to you.  To understand it, you'll have to get to know him, through studying (reading your Bible) and talking to Him (praying).  When you engage in that, He will start cutting down the brush and make you a path out of your personal wilderness into the light He wants to shine on your life.

The best day to get started would be today.  Why wait any longer to receive His blessings?