Hope beyond Failure
Our only source of relief comes through Your grace. Bring it to our attention again and again in those critical moments when discouragement does a number on us...and make us grateful.
Written by Chuck Swindoll, these encouraging devotional thoughts are published seven days per week.
Our only source of relief comes through Your grace. Bring it to our attention again and again in those critical moments when discouragement does a number on us...and make us grateful.
Our Father in heaven, as a result of Your Word we pray that You might grant to us insight into our homes, our nation, and this world. We ask You to raise up from this world that is given to passivity and compromise a body of people who will live for and, if necessary, fight for the truth.
Our Father, encourage us—especially we who often doubt and feel ashamed of our doubt. May we realize that You are in the midst of our reflections and, through such inner searching, we can come to new insights and deeper depths that otherwise we would never have known.
For those who are in a difficult strait, under pressure, up against a wall, facing a test—perhaps the greatest in their lives—we ask that You remind them that the saint who advances on his or her knees never retreats.
We ask, Father, that You give us hope beyond our immaturity. Help us in our unbelief. Guard us from discouragement. As we look back over the checklist You gave to Peter—and realize how far we have to go—remind us also how far we've come, by Your grace.
No one on earth can do those special things. We forget, but God remembers. We see the action; God sees the motive. This qualifies Him as the best record keeper and judge.
In several places through the New Testament, there are statements of promise from God to faithful servants.
Serving God by serving others definitely has rewards, and they are numerous. They far outweigh the consequences. When we think about them, they motivate us to keep going.
It’s not hidden. The Lord comes up front and says that when you and I take the role of a servant, there is the joyful realization that a thankful spirit is being stimulated.
Someone once counted all the promises in the Bible and came up with an amazing figure of almost 7500. Among that large number are some specific promises servants can claim today.