Encouragement That Doesn't Go Away

I have yet to find a person who doesn’t want to be blessed.  Many folks have lots of different descriptions of what “being blessed” might look like but being in that place where we receive goodness until our lives feel good is something I would imagine every human being longs for.

These words, prayed for us and that we can pray for others, moves us along in that journey towards “being blessed,” I think. What do you think?

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.  2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

First we are reminded that God loves us and then the description of just some of the ways that He expresses that love.  Just the fact of being loved with an unfailing love by the strong and amazing God who created us and everything around us is wonderful in itself but then we are told that God give us “grace” which is great goodness that we don’t deserve.  And what does that grace look like in this particular description?

Eternal encouragement – we can all feel pretty good about things when we are doing well or someone around us is doing well and our circumstances are okay but this is “eternal encouragement” – encouragement that is there for us through thick and thin, through our successes and our failures, through our times of well-being in relationships and when things are seemingly hopelessly messed up. 

If we will raise our eyes and our thoughts towards the Living God, He will send encouragement our way.  And that encouragement is married to “good hope.”

There’s so much about the future we don’t know but God does and as we surrender our will and our life into His care, He is able to bring about so much more good in our lives than we can even imagine today. 

In what areas of your life do you need eternal encouragement and good hope today?  Let’s take a moment and receive that from God because it is in the experience of that encouragement that we are lifted up and strengthened to do good today. 

I can’t think of a better place to live today than where we are able to say and do good things that bring joy and peace and uplift to others.  Can you? Well, it all comes as we receive eternal encouragement and good hope from our Heavenly Father.

So, I can’t think of a better prayer for us than these very words and so I pray them for you, for me, and for those we love today, and maybe I should be including our enemies as well, don’t you think?

May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.  2 Thessalonians 2:16-17

Have a wonderful day walking and working in God’s encouraging grace and love.