40 Days of Encouragement

Dr Jim Brown's TruNorth Devotional
40 Days of Encouragement
Day 24 | GOD’S RESOURCES
GOD’S RESOURCES

Colossians 1:11-12
“As you live this new life, we pray that you will be strengthened from God’s boundless resources, so that you will find yourselves able to pass through any experience and endure it with courage.”
  (Phillips)

As I write this, my wife and I have a two-year-old golden retriever named Porsche. We got her as a pup and my wife has been working with her to learn how to be a “good puppy.” Thus, we have trained her in various things to do and some NOT to do. She is still a work in progress, but coming along.

From God’s point of view, you and I are still “works in progress.”  We haven’t arrived yet and still need to learn things “to-do” and NOT “to do.”
 
For instance, the Lord wants us to learn – in this new life we have in Christ – how to be strengthened by Him so we can “pass through any experience and endure it with courage.”

The word “encourage” means to “give-courage.”  And here, the Lord is telling us, through Paul’s writing, that He desires, through His boundless resources, to strengthen and give us the courage to get through any experience that comes upon us.

What are you facing? Maybe nothing… or perhaps something. So, rather than making God the LAST person you go to for help, maybe you should make Him the FIRST.

Why do most Believers admit turning to the Lord in prayer as a last resort when surveyed? Perhaps we fail to consider God’s “boundless resources” that are available to strengthen us and help us go over, around, or through that “mountain” we’re facing. Perhaps it is because we “don’t want to bother God.”  Those thoughts are put in your head by the Enemy of our faith, not by God the Holy Spirit.

Turn to Him FIRST. He truly has what you need!

Prayer: LORD, thank You for offering to strengthen and help me. I am sorry for not turning to you first, and I will try to DO that more often. Amen.