His Encouragement #3

Happy Thursday 🙂 A few fellow bloggers and myself have come together to share a bit of encouragement from God’s word each Thursday. And lets face it, by the time we hit that time of the week we can all use a little bit of encouragement. I hope that His words touch your heart and feel like a hug from your Heavenly Father 🙂

Today I am sharing:

I have told you all this so that you may have peace in me. Here on earth you will have many trials and sorrows. But take heart, because I have overcome the world.
~John 16:33

For those of you who visited my page last week, you may notice that John 16:33 is how I ended last week’s post. It has been on my mind a lot this week though, so I have felt led to share more on it. We live in a crazy, chaotic world. Contrary to some of the “health and wealth” teachings you may hear in this day and age, Jesus never promised prosperity in this life. Instead, James 1:2-4 teaches us to consider it joy when we face trials, because those trials and testing of our faith produces steadfastness, and that steadfastness makes us more Christ-like. Jesus did what no other man could have done. He lived a perfect, sinless life and died on the cross for our sins so that we can have a relationship with the Father. He was both fully God and fully man, which can be a difficult concept to grasp, but has immense significance. He needed food and water to survive. He had friends and family. He was tempted by Satan. He suffered and died for us willingly so that we could have life. He not only lived life as a man, he overcame it.

We have a loving God who understands that this life isn’t easy. He forgives and encourages us and adopts us as His children. He knows us better than we know ourselves. He knows how painful life can be. He hasn’t left us here to figure it all out on our own. He has given us His Word to be a lamp to our feet and a light to our paths (Psalm 119:105). He gave us Jesus, who accomplished what we could never do, and paid the price we could never pay. I don’t know about you, but this speaks right to my heart.

Now, it’s your turn!

What Biblical verse is encouraging you today?

And, check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:

Nicole @ Christian Fiction Girl

Trisha @ Joy of Reading

Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home

Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective

If you would like to join us: please contact Trisha or Nicole