Bible League: Living His Word We also pray that you will be strengthened with all his glorious power so you will have all the endurance and patience you need.— Colossians 1:11 NLT Maybe things have been tough for you lately. Maybe things haven't gone the way you expected or as soon as you expected. Instead of the new job you thought you had in the bag, you've been passed over for someone less qualified and less competent. Instead of a good report from the doctor, you got something considerably less than satisfying. Instead of getting good news from your son or daughter, they're making you wait even longer. It could be anything. It could be something not very serious, or it could be something very serious. It could be a number of things all piling up on you at once. Whatever it is, however serious it is, and however much it is, you need some help, or at the very least endurance. Like the rest of us who look to the Lord and call on His name, you were looking for victory through faith. You wanted more than just the ability to endure the unpleasant things in life. Sometimes, however, you don't get what you're hoping for, or you don't get it right away. Sometimes, God has other plans or a longer time frame. At those times, endurance doesn't seem so bad. Indeed, it seems like just the support your faith could use. Endurance often needs the patience to go with it. It's one thing to have the strength to endure, but it's another thing to have the strength to endure with patience. A patient attitude supports faith, but impatience undermines it. When things don't go as expected, or as soon as expected, patience is a necessary virtue. Don't think that you're alone in this process. Just as the Apostle Paul prayed for the church in Colossae, so Christ intercedes for you. He has purchased for you a measure of God's glorious power that will strengthen you with all the endurance and patience you need. Bible in a Year Old Testament ReadingJeremiah 51, 52 Jeremiah 51 -- The Judgment of God against Babylon for Sins Against Israel NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Jeremiah 52 -- The Fall of Jerusalem and Release or Jehoiachin NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB New Testament Reading Hebrews 6 Hebrews 6 -- Warning against Falling Away; Hope in Christ as an Anchor for the Soul NIV NLT ESV NAS GWT KJV ASV ERV DRB Reading Plan Courtesy of Christian Classics Etherial Library. Tyndale Life Application Daily Devotion Put on your new nature, and be renewed as you learn to know your Creator and become like him.Insight What does it mean to “put on your new nature”? It means that your conduct should match your faith. Challenge If you are a Christian, you should act like it. To be a Christian means more than just making good resolutions and having good intentions; it means taking the right actions. This is a straightforward step that is as simple as putting on your clothes. Morning and Evening by Spurgeon Isaiah 33:16 His place of defence shall be the munitions of rocks: bread shall be given him; his waters shall be sure.Do you doubt, O Christian, do you doubt as to whether God will fulfil his promise? Shall the munitions of rock be carried by storm? Shall the storehouses of heaven fail? Do you think that your heavenly Father, though he knoweth that you have need of food and raiment, will yet forget you? When not a sparrow falls to the ground without your Father, and the very hairs of your head are all numbered, will you mistrust and doubt him? Perhaps your affliction will continue upon you till you dare to trust your God, and then it shall end. Full many there be who have been tried and sore vexed till at last they have been driven in sheer desperation to exercise faith in God, and the moment of their faith has been the instant of their deliverance; they have seen whether God would keep his promise or not. Oh, I pray you, doubt him no longer! Please not Satan, and vex not yourself by indulging any more those hard thoughts of God. Think it not a light matter to doubt Jehovah. Remember, it is a sin; and not a little sin either, but in the highest degree criminal. The angels never doubted him, nor the devils either: we alone, out of all the beings that God has fashioned, dishonor him by unbelief, and tarnish his honor by mistrust. Shame upon us for this! Our God does not deserve to be so basely suspected; in our past life we have proved him to be true and faithful to his word, and with so many instances of his love and of his kindness as we have received, and are daily receiving, at his hands, it is base and inexcusable that we suffer a doubt to sojourn within our heart. May we henceforth wage constant war against doubts of our God--enemies to our peace and to his honor; and with an unstaggering faith believe that what he has promised he will also perform. "Lord, I believe, help thou mine unbelief." Daily Light on the Daily Path Psalm 50:5 "Gather My godly ones to Me, Those who have made a covenant with Me by sacrifice."Hebrews 9:28 so Christ also, having been offered once to bear the sins of many, will appear a second time for salvation without reference to sin, to those who eagerly await Him. Hebrews 9:15 For this reason He is the mediator of a new covenant, so that, since a death has taken place for the redemption of the transgressions that were committed under the first covenant, those who have been called may receive the promise of the eternal inheritance. John 17:24 "Father, I desire that they also, whom You have given Me, be with Me where I am, so that they may see My glory which You have given Me, for You loved Me before the foundation of the world. Mark 13:27 "And then He will send forth the angels, and will gather together His elect from the four winds, from the farthest end of the earth to the farthest end of heaven. Deuteronomy 30:4 "If your outcasts are at the ends of the earth, from there the LORD your God will gather you, and from there He will bring you back. 1 Thessalonians 4:16,17 For the Lord Himself will descend from heaven with a shout, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. • Then we who are alive and remain will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we shall always be with the Lord. New American Standard Bible Copyright © 1960, 1962, 1963, 1968, 1971, 1972, 1973, 1975, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation, La Habra, Calif. All rights reserved. For Permission to Quote Information visit http://www.lockman.org. |