Praise be to the God and Father of my Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts me in all my troubles, so that I can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort I myself have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into my life, so also through Christ my comfort overflows. If I am distressed, it is for my comfort and salvation; if I am comforted, it will produce in me patient endurance of the same sufferings other Christians have suffered. Grace and peace will come to me from God our Father and the Lord Jesus Christ, who gave himself for my sins to rescue me from the present evil age, according to the will of my God and Father, to whom be the glory. [2Corinthians 1:3-7; Galatians 1:3-5]
God has not given me the spirit of fear, but of power, love, and self-control. [2Timothy 1:7, MEV] I ask You, Holy Spirit, to help me be wise in when and how to use this power, to demonstrate and fully embrace the love of Christ through me to others and to learn to have self-control as I learn what
righteousness means and to not take lightly the cost behind the gift of forgiveness and salvation that was paid for me to not only follow Jesus, but to allow Your indwelling with in me as I learn to be an adopted child of God and to start living with the reality of eternity and staying away from sin. Help me to start truly living with the power of knowing this is not my final resting place and that I am yours with a life of purpose and hope so that I can live above apathy, burn out and discouragement. Open my eyes to the bigger picture like You did when You opened the eyes of Elisha’s servant to see more than just the enemy surrounding me.
May the God of hope fill me with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit will abound in hope within me. Amen. [Romans 15:13]