Category Archive

To enter into Holy Week and look for encouragement is to look at the Cross of Jesus Christ.  How can that place of tragedy be encouraging?  He intended it to be.  He was looking beyond that act of love to a joy that was ahead.  This is why He endured.  Love brought Jesus to the Cross.  Love for God, love for you, love for me.  Love kept Him on the Cross, to shed His blood for your sins and mine.  Only Christ’s pure blood and righteousness can cleanse sins and make us whiter than snow.

Be encouraged.  Even as you live through the solemnity of Holy Week, be encouraged by the love that fills these days, and the outcome that proves joy comes in the morning.  Before we celebrate Resurrection victory next week, we remember the Christ who died so we might live.  The gift of encouragement for this week is remembrance of an act of love Jesus submitted to ages ago.  His love and this act of submission remain our love gift forevermore.

Lord Jesus, to look at the Cross is to look at Your heart of love.  Thank You seems trite in view of all of You have done.  Yet, with loving adoration and warm thanksgiving, praise is Yours.  You are the hope and reason why anyone can carry on.  In Thee, Amen.

Perspective.  It matters.  How you look at someone or something colors the way you feel.  When loss comes into a life—and loss comes into every life—perspective determines how the grief process will be experienced.

Jesus wants us to live with hope.  Even when life’s challenges and sorrows touch us, He died a death and was raised from the dead so that we would always—always—have hope.  Be embraced by His hope today.  Even if you do not feel it, have the faith of a mustard seed.  It is enough to hold on to Christ’s perspective.  He is holding on to you.

Lord Jesus, with faith eyes look to tomorrow with hope.  Thank You, Jesus, for making our perspective Your own.  In Thee, Amen.

To follow Jesus is to remember that He is before you.  Every step, every day.  A Christian follows Christ, His Word, and His ways.  Faith assures a follower that you are not alone—ever—as you follow Jesus.  He is with you.  He knows the way, even if you do not.  Trust Him.

Life in this world holds seasons of uncertainty and unusual steps.  Disappointment, confusion, sorrow, and doubt will be part of human steps.  But the Christ of yesterday, today, and tomorrow is with you.  When you say Yes to Jesus, remember that He is leading your way.  You never walk alone.

Lord Jesus, You know that at times to follow You is done with heavy hearts and feet.  Help Your followers to hold to You when life is challenging, dark, and uncertain.  By faith, may all steps continue to be taken with you.  In Thee, Amen.

Clouds captivate.  Soft billowing clouds, those with dramatic contours, and those that children identify as shapes of animals, all clouds get our attention.  Eyes are drawn up and beyond.  When we look up at God’s sky and His cloud formations, we see His creative Hand.

We are wise to let God’s beauty draw us away to capture our attention and imagination.  When we meditate on God’s creative expression, we can come to see the  potential God has placed in each of us.  Even when challenges arise in our lives and we experience seasons odd and unwanted, the Lord can use them to create something magnificent.  The drama of the thunderstorm still gives a gift, and after it is gone—the rainbow.

Lord of Life, Thank You for the marvelous way that You create beauty for Your children to enjoy and by which to be inspired.  Lord, give each of Your people wisdom to look carefully for the blessing in every cloud.   In Jesus, Amen.

Hope is not something to take lightly.  This soft word produces hard results.  If one possesses hope, a myriad of wrongful and destructive outcomes are kept at bay.  Without the presence of hope, there is nothing to hold back choices self-destructive or destructive to others.  Without hope, there is no vision for the future.

Suicidal deaths are the result of the absence of hope.  Addictions, depression, and various other realities bar hope.  An ending is committed that is a harrowing beginning in grief’s torment.  Jesus is the hope that breathes beyond human limits and beyond challenging endings.  The hope of Christ breathes into weak faith.  May you remember that Jesus is the hope that upholds believers and sustains them throughout all of life’s valleys.  Jesus is the also the One to comfort when hurts and losses are deep and numbing.  Jesus is with you—right now.

Jesus, Your hope sustains.  Thank You for Thy upholding Spirit, and righteous foundation.  Those who ache in grief have You to carry them with Your powerful.  Your love is everything.  In Thee, Lord Christ, Amen.

To right a wrong after someone has died can make a spirit churn and a body weak form guilt and remorse.  To seek forgiveness from someone who is no longer there to ask for it is to live with regret.  Jesus can change that.  He does not want anyone to live with regrets that deplete energy and slay joy.  Instead, He wants a person to come to Him for the forgiveness they need.  He is available at any time or place to dispense that forgiveness.  This is what Jesus does—forgives.

There are times in life when betrayals, wrongs, and offenses are committed against us or by us.  They long to be soothed and righted.  Jesus is accessible at any time to heal.  What happened cannot be changed.  It may not be possible to speak to the person with whom the problem occurred.  However, Jesus is the Person you can go to now to tell about the problem and seek resolution.  He is waiting to hear from you.  His heart will not reject you.  His love for you is too great to turn you away.  Go to Him.  Jesus loves you.

Lord Jesus, sometimes circumstances are such that people are unable to go to individuals directly to relieve their minds and spirits.  You, Lord Christ, are the One who forgives.  Thank You, Lord, for Your constant availability to anyone who needs to release his or her burdens.  Thank You for the gift of prayer and time with You that heals and restores.  In Thee, Amen.

The Star that is Jesus that a believer follows means walking in step with His heart for you.  Think of that.  Jesus is with you walking the path of your life with you.  On a momentary basis, Jesus is beside you to speak, listen, care, and love.  Oh, how He loves.  His love for you is second to none.  Think about that.  It is a thought to stop you in your steps and take your breath away.

In a culture of speed and instant answers, walking with Jesus is counter-cultural.  To go along with Jesus is to live in faith.  Whether your life is currently stable or if you are in a season of trial, to continue to walk with Him is to take steps of faith and trust in Him.  The Wise Men kept walking toward the Star and eventually arrived to bring their gifts.  The wisdom they possessed told them that what they had to offer was small compared to the gift of Himself that Jesus had already given to them by virtue of His presence.  The gift of His presence is still ours today.  Receive it.  It is yours.

Lord Jesus, Your love for each one of Your own is immeasurable.  You walk with each one in love.  Jesus, Thank You for your faithful steps.  May we continue to follow You and Your ways.  May we be open to receive Your incomparable gift of love.  Amen.

Showing up when you do not feel as though you have a strong spirit to offer is evidence of Christ alive inside of you.  Each of us experiences times of weakness, emptiness, and mourning.  Life hurts at times.  When it does, vibrancy plummets and we feel low.  This is normal.  It is a perfect time for the Lord to show His faithfulness.

Jesus promised to be with us always.  Always.  That means in times of distress as well as times of joy and ease.  He is not going anywhere.  Once you have said yes to His gift of Salvation, His presence is with you forever.  No matter what.  Trust His love and nearness to carry you—even if you do not feel it.  He is The Great God.  He can do anything.  Today He wants to love you as only He can.  Let Him.

Jesus, You promised.  We trust that promise today no matter what we feel.  You are our anchor.  You are the love on which we depend.  Give to those who are especially weak this day of a touch of You so they are warmed and encouraged by the nearness of You.  In Thee, Amen.

Saying goodbye is work.  It may not seem as though it is laborious but it takes emotional energy, tears, and a flood of memories to toil through.  When someone special leaves this world and our lives, it takes tremendous effort to adjust to that absence.  Prayer, God’s Word, and the might of the Holy Spirit’s presence are steady helpers in that phase of adjustment.

The Lord Jesus knows the pain of grief and how riveting it can be.  He stays in the lonely hours and in the hollow days to make a difference in our ability to carry on.  We still may not feel as though we are stronger; we are not.  But the strength of Jesus and His abiding love carries us through.  Count on His presence with you.

Lord Jesus, You said You would be with us always.  Thank You, loving Lord, for staying with those who must do the hard work of goodbye and remembrance.  May the comfort of You and the hope of a reunion ahead be of support and encouragement to those who grieve.  In Thee, Amen.

Love.  That word conjures a myriad of meaning and emotion.  It is a warm word yet filled with indescribable experiences and reaches that only living out the word with someone else can reveal.  When we say I love you to someone, we accept the unknown.  Whether that relationship is with a special man, woman, parent, child, friend, new friend, it means there will be a host of variables, memories, decisions, anxieties, and uncharted paths that will be lived through in the interest of love for that other person.

This week we will see the commercial side of love, which does have its merit as flowers, candy, and cards are offered as token expressions of love for Valentine’s Day.  But Valentine hearts cannot mirror what lies in the heart of one who truly loves another.  Expressions are best offered in moments of silence, through illness, in mourning, in joyous memories, in the hope of reunions to come.  Love is something Jesus proved on Calvary.  Sometimes love hurts and is sacrificial if it is love at all.  May you and those you love exchange something meaningful this week; something that blesses each of you and brings glory to God.  Remember, Jesus loves you.

Lord Jesus, Your love is the gift of a lifetime.  Thank You, Lord Jesus, for all You have done and all You continue to teach us through Your Word and Your ways about what true love really means, and what true love really costs.  In Thee, Amen.