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Matthew 6:30

Now if God so clothes the grass of the field, which today is, and tomorrow is thrown into the oven, will He not much more clothe you, O you of little faith?

Personal Challenge…

Why is it that we can trust our God to give us eternal live, to save us from the pits of hell, and yet not trust Him to meet our every need as He has promised us? Is it because deep down we do not really trust Him for anything and we just call out Him for “fire insurance”? Is it because we get too caught up in doing it all our way and relegating God to the back seat? Is it because we are focusing on our WANTS and not our NEEDS and angry at God for not giving us what we want? God does not lie. He has promised us in His scriptures and through the traditions of the church that He will take care of us. What we need to do is trust Him and ask Him to show us what our needs really are and to teach us to be thankful for that. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy. Lord, have mercy.

Jeremiah 32:27 (39:27 LXX)

Psalm 27:13-14 (26:13-14 LXX)

I believe I shall see the Lord’s goodness in the land of the living.
Wait on the Lord;
Be courageous, and strengthen your heart,
And wait on the Lord.

Personal Challenge…

Waiting on the Lord is never an easy thing to do. sometimes it is part of our theosis, growing in the image of God.

Deuteronomy 4:31

for the Lord your God is a merciful God. He will not forsake you nor annihilate you, nor forget the covenant of your fathers, which He swore to them.

Encouraging Words…

We so easily apply our limited and temporal perspective to the things of God, which are far beyond what we can comprehend and of the spiritual realm. When we hear of His mercy, His promise to never forsake us, His remembrance of the covenants that He has made with humankind we apply our experiences in our lives to this and look at it through the filter of the times that we have been abused or abandoned or mistreated or had love taken away from us. This is where faith steps in. Faith in the Almighty loving God. Faith in the work that Jesus did while being God in human form. Faith in His promises and covenants. Through this faith we begin to see God’s mature and that He keeps His promises. Glory be to God!

Hebrews 11:1

Now faith is the substance of things hoped for, the evidence of things not seen.

Encouraging Words…

Faith…it is that core part of Christianity that sets it apart from other forms of religion. It is not about works, yet Christians perform great works as an outcome of our faith. It is not about all of the miracles and great things that have happened in the history of the church, but without faith we cannot accept these miracles for what they are, God acting in the midst of humanity. Faith is a core part of our created being. Even atheists, agnostics, and every other anti-God person is putting their innate faith in something, just not the Holy God that created them. Faith encourages us to press on.

The notes from the Orthodox Study Bible articulate this well:

This is not so much a definition of faith as it is a description of how faith works, especially during hard times. It encourages Jewish Christians discouraged by persecution. Things hoped for and not seen, a vision of the future, have encouraged the people of God throughout history: the invisible is often more real than the visible. In the past, mighty works of faith were done by those whose faith was unfulfilled. How much more should those persevere who have inherited the promise, knowing God under the new covenant (vv. 39, 40).

Revelation 22:17

And the Spirit and the bride say, “Come!” And let him who hears say, “Come!” And let him who thirsts come. Whoever desires, let him take the water of life freely.

Encouraging Words…

What a wonderful way to end the written scriptures. The Holy Spirit and the bride of Christ pleading for His return and at the same time knowing that all of us who are tired and weary, broken and thirsty, can come to Him to drink in the water of life freely. We know that He delays so that more can find Him and know Him and His love for them. Glory be to God!

Luke 12:8-9

Also I say to you, whoever confesses Me before men, him the Son of Man also will confess before the angels of God. But he who denies Me before men will be denied before the angels of God.

Personal Challenge…

Am I living my life in a way that confesses/professes Jesus Christ as the Son of Man and Lord of creation? Or am I keeping it to myself out of fear of humiliation or retribution. To be confessed as a child of God’s before the angels and God requires a life lived full of being out there with our love for Christ and professing everyone’s need for Him. A light under a bushel quickly goes out. Lord Jesus Christ, Son of God, have mercy on me, a sinner.

Romans 8:35-39

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? As it is written:

“For Your sake we are killed all day long;We are accounted as sheep for the slaughter.”

Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us. For I am persuaded that neither death nor life, nor angels nor principalities nor powers, nor things present nor things to come, nor height nor depth, nor any other created thing, shall be able to separate us from the love of God which is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

Encouraging Words…

In the Orthodox church we have entered into our pre-Lenten season. Right around the corner is Lent and our time to prepare for Pascha (Easter), the celebration of our Lord’s victory over death by His own death. This will be my third Lent and each year the spiritualness of this season becomes more apparent. This is a time of repentance and mourning, looking back and looking forward, and a time that the enemy doesn’t want us to partake in because it can draw us closer to our Lord. This passage by Paul is such a vivid reminder that no matter what is going on in our lives our Lord is always with us and that nothing can separate us from His love. Glory be to God!

Isaiah 57:15

The Lord, the Most High who dwells on high forever, the Holy One among His saints, whose name is the Lord Most High, who rests among His saints, and who gives patience to the fainthearted and life to the broken-hearted…

Encouraging Words…

God is not some distant, uncaring, “man upstairs” nor is He a fickle, judgmental ogre that so many make Him out to be. He does dwell on high, far from where we mortals can reach, but at the same time He dwells amongst us, His saints. He encourages us, comforts us, gives patience to the fainthearted, and life to the broken-hearted. God, the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit loves and cares for His children, His creation. Glory be to God.

Psalm 23:6 (22:6 LXX)

Surely goodness and mercy shall follow me
All the days of my life;
And I will dwell in the house of the Lord to the end of my days.

Encouraging Words…

How do we define goodness and mercy? If we use the vocabulary of the world we will come with a list of blessings in our lives that are far different than if we use the vocabulary of God’s heavenly kingdom. His goodness and mercy are eternal, they cannot be stolen from us or lost and they do not decay. It is important that we allow our mindset to be changed by the work of our Lord (Father, Son, and Holy Spirit) so that it can be shifted from temporal desires and achievements to spiritual ones.