Category: Weekly Word of Encouragement

You, Lord, are forgiving and good,abounding in love to all who call to you. Psalms 86:5 (NIV) We do not have to sin-free to call upon God and receive his love. He knows we sin and he wants to forgive. He is thoroughly good and his forgiveness is part of this goodness. He will not respond to our prayers with condemnation for our faults. Instead, he encourages us by only requesting that we have a repentant heart that seeks forgiveness. And he asks that we admit our weakness and needs by calling on him, trusting that he is the Supreme Helper. If we come to him this way then we can expect him to apply his love to us. If we are suffering, then he will be near us and help us to bear up under it and perhaps deliver us. He will provide peace and hope regardless of our Continue Reading →

For the LORD God is a sun and shield;the LORD bestows favor and honor.No good thing does he withholdfrom those who walk uprightly. Psalms 84:11 (NIV) This Psalm encourages us by reminding us that God enlightens the world of those who walk with him. He is a blanket of light like the sun, making all good things visible so that we know God’s reality. And he is a shield of protection for his followers, protecting our hearts from the Enemy and from the destruction of sin. He gives us favor by dwelling in us by his Spirit and giving us an eternal destiny in his utopia. In the next age he will honor us, glorify us and give us grace (1 Pet. 1:13). In that day he will not withhold anything good from us but shower us with all of his blessings. We will live in a New Eden, where Continue Reading →

Rise up, O God, judge the earth,for all the nations are your inheritance. Psalms 82:8 (NIV) This Psalmist is asking God to judge the earth, especially rulers who are partial to the wicked and support oppressors. Like the Psalmist we all want such practices to end permanently. Then the Psalmist declares a most encouraging word. “All the nations are your inheritance.” This means that ultimately the nations will belong to God. How will this happen? After he judges the citizens of all nations, those who pass judgment will remain with God. And God will gather members from every nation to himself. These people will be the true representatives of their nations and the truly redeemed and restored citizens of those nations. At the end of this age all these nations will be reunited with God in his community: After this I looked, and there before me was a great multitude that Continue Reading →

And I said, “This is my fate;the Most High has turned his hand against me.”But then I recall all you have done, O LORD;I remember your wonderful deeds of long ago. Psalms 77:10-11 (NLT) The Psalmist felt that God had abandoned him, that the Lord had rejected him and would no longer love him: Has the Lord rejected me forever?Will he never again be kind to me?Is his unfailing love gone forever?Have his promises permanently failed? Psalms 77:7-8 (NLT) But then he thought back to God’s great deeds of the past. He remembered that God miraculously brought Israel through the Red Sea (vv. 16-20). Likewise, if you wonder if God is with you and cares for you, remember what he has done in the past. Remember supernatural events that only God could have done. Remember how he rescued you from the kingdom of darkness. This is enough for your faith. It Continue Reading →

God says, “I will break the strength of the wicked,but I will increase the power of the godly. Psalms 75:10 (NLT) God is not willing that anyone should perish but desires that everyone comes to repentance (2 Pet. 3:9). But what if they never come to repentance? Should they be allowed to live with the righteous forever? Should God preserve them so that they can rebel against God for all eternity? Should they have the freedom to corrupt God’s eternal community of love with his followers? Because of his love and mercy toward his people, as well as for the sake of the radiance of his goodness, God must “break the strength of the wicked” one day. If they persist in their self-focused lives until they die, then their “freedom” to infect God’s creation must come to an end. This frees his people to live in peace and harmony with Continue Reading →