Good morning, ministry partner . . .

Be encouraged from the Word

Having believed, you were marked in him with a seal, the promised Holy Spirit, who is a deposit guaranteeing our inheritance until the redemption of those who are God's possession—to the praise of his glory.

Ephesians 1:13b-14, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

In the Christian life we never have to look behind us for the best. The best is always ahead, always yet to come, always beckoning us onward and forward, both in this life and in the next.

Mendell Taylor

A prayer to strengthen your day

O God, who has been the Refuge of my fathers through many generations, be my Refuge today in every time and circumstance of need.

John Baillie

Be encouraged from the Word

So do not fear, for I am with you; do not be dismayed, for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you; I will uphold you with my righteous right hand.

Isaiah 41:10, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

The trouble we bear trustfully brings to us a fresh vision of God, and, as a result, we discover a new outlook on life.

Billy Graham

A prayer to strengthen your day

Lord of perspective and fulfillment

            teach me how to laugh at

                        myself

                        my worries

                        my obstacles

            and to find peace in your promises. Amen.

Neil B. Wiseman

Be encouraged from the Word

“Though the mountains be shaken

            and the hills be removed,

            yet my unfailing love for you will not be shaken

            nor my covenant of peace be removed,"

            says the LORD, who has compassion on you.

Isaiah 54:10, niv

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

The gracious Lord ever strengthens the will that is willing. He transforms the frail reed into an iron pillar, and makes trembling timidity bold as a lion.

John Henry Jowett

A prayer to strengthen your day

We thank thee, God, for the young who see visions of a better world and will not be content with ancient evils. Give them wisdom with their zeal, and give us charity and understanding in our judgments. Amen.

Georgia Harkness

Be encouraged from the Word

Do not be surprised, my brothers, if the world hates you. We know that we have passed from death to life, because we love our brothers.

1 John 3:13-14a, niv

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

A Christian is one who points at Christ and says, “I can’t prove a thing, but there’s something about his eyes and his voice. There’s something about the way he carries his head, his hands, the way he carries his cross—the way he carries me.”

Frederick Buechner

A prayer to strengthen your day

I give you my intellect to be wholly devoted to your service, and perfectly under your control to think only those thoughts that will please you, to devise only such plans as you suggest, to yield the management of all its affairs to you.

Hannah Whitall Smith

Be encouraged from the Word

“And you, my son Solomon, acknowledge the God of your father, and serve him with wholehearted devotion and with a willing mind, for the LORD searches every heart and understands every motive behind the thoughts. If you seek him, he will be found by you; but if you forsake him, he will reject you forever.

1 Chronicles 28:9, niv

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

A large part of the father’s life had been spent waiting. He could not force his younger son to come home or his older son to let go of his resentments. Only they themselves could take the initiative to return.

Henri J. M. Nouwen

A prayer to strengthen your day

Lord, while we may wish for simple answers and quick solutions, we thank You that Your grace is with us in the complexity and struggle of our life of faith. Amen.

Dietrich Bonhoeffer

Be encouraged from the Word

For the eyes of the Lord are on the righteous and his ears are attentive to their prayer, but the face of the Lord is against those who do evil.

1 Peter 3:12, niv

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

We need the flash of light to show us the way; we need the surge of courage to set us out on the right way. But the really difficult thing is not to begin; it is to continue to the end.

William Barclay

A prayer to strengthen your day

Lord of all holiness, I seek to think, act, and respond in the beauty of holiness in every happening of life.

Oswald Chambers

Be encouraged from the Word

Now the Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. And we, who with unveiled faces all reflect the Lord's glory, are being transformed into his likeness with ever-increasing glory, which comes from the Lord, who is the Spirit.

2 Corinthians 3:17-18, niv

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

He found ugliness, He left beauty; He found pain, He left pleasure; He found dirt, He left deity.

Mrs. Charles E. Cowman

A prayer to strengthen your day

O my Father, my God, I am in your hand. May I rejoice above all things in being so. Do with me what seems good in your sight; only let me love you with all my mind, soul and strength.

John Wesley

Be encouraged from the Word

"But Lord," Gideon asked, "how can I save Israel? My clan is the weakest in Manasseh, and I am the least in my family." The LORD answered, "I will be with you, and you will strike down all the Midianites together."

Judges 6:15-16, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

“Thank you for the invitation and the promise: the invitation to put all my needs before you, the promise that you will meet them in wisdom and peace.”

Eugene Peterson

A prayer to strengthen your day

Our Father, let nothing become as important to me as You! You are my highest treasure!

Fletcher Spruce 

Be encouraged from the Word

The lord is good to those whose hope is in him, to the one who seeks him.

Lamentations 3: 25, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

Life’s greatest tragedy is to lose God and not to miss Him.

F. W. Norwood

A prayer to strengthen your day

Father, help me understand that You are not so much interested in the arithmetic of my prayers—how many there are; or the oratory of my prayers—how eloquent they are; but in the sincerity of my prayers—how real they are. Help me pray, dear Lord. Amen.

Selwyn Hughes

Be encouraged from the Word

The Sovereign lord has given me an instructed tongue,

to know the word that sustains the weary.

He wakens me morning by morning,

wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

Isaiah 50:4, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

Lead me O God on the journey of justice,

Guide me O God on the pathways of peace,

Renew me O God by the wellsprings of grace. 

Today, tonight, and forever.

J. Philip Newell

A prayer to strengthen your day

For the times we have failed those who have trusted us, and have been concerned with ourselves when they needed our concern, pardon us.

Kenneth Slack

Be encouraged from the Word

Whatever you do, work at it with all your heart, as working for the Lord, not for men, since you know that you will receive an inheritance from the Lord as a reward. It is the Lord Christ you are serving.

Colossians 3:23-24, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

Help us, O God, to make hard choices for service to others, rather than gain for self. 

Halford Luccock

A prayer to strengthen your day

God, you know I did the best I could with that sensitive issue in that recent board meeting. Now I am being criticized for what I said and I don’t like it. But since criticism usually contains some truth, help me find that truth so I may be better and more like you. Amen.

Neil B. Wiseman

Be encouraged from the Word

But godliness with contentment is great gain. For we brought nothing into the world, and we can take nothing out of it.

1 Timothy 6: 6-7, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

Growth in grace stops the moment I get huffed.

Oswald Chambers

A prayer to strengthen your day

O Father, help me this day to do some little act of kindness that may live in somebody’s memory forever. Amen.

E. Stanley Jones

Be encouraged from the Word

Even to your old age and gray hairs

I am he, I am he who will sustain you.

I have made you and I will carry you;

I will sustain you and I will rescue you.

Isaiah 46:4, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

The pressures of material circumstances, opposition, antagonism, and persecution are known by anyone who dares to be sensitive and to stand for anything worthwhile. But we were never meant to take the pressure alone. When we are under His equalizing pressure of love we can take the pressure of the world.

Lloyd John Ogilvie

A prayer to strengthen your day

Teach me, O God, not to torture myself, not to make a martyr out of myself through stifling reflection, but rather teach me to breathe deeply in faith.

Søren Kierkegaard

Be encouraged from the Word

Moreover, when God gives any man wealth and possessions, and enables him to enjoy them, to accept his lot and be happy in his work—this is a gift of God.

Ecclesiastes 5:19, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

The well of Providence is deep. It is the buckets we bring to it that are small

Mary Webb

A prayer to strengthen your day

Give me the mind to pray, the love to pray, and the will to pray.

Selwyn Hughes

Be encouraged from the Word

Since we have these promises, dear friends, let us purify ourselves from everything that contaminates body and spirit, perfecting holiness out of reverence for God.

2 Corinthians 7:1, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

To accept the responsibility of being a child of God is to accept the best that life has to offer you.

Stella Terrill Mann

A prayer to strengthen your day

Thank you, Lord Jesus, that you are willing to fill us again and again with the Holy Spirit and that the fruit and the gifts are available to us. How we need them.

Corrie ten Boom

Be encouraged from the Word

If anyone speaks, he should do it as one speaking the very words of God. If anyone serves, he should do it with the strength God provides, so that in all things God may be praised through Jesus Christ. To him be the glory and the power for ever and ever. Amen.

1 Peter 4:11, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

To me, faith is not just a noun but also a verb.

Jimmy Carter

A prayer to strengthen your day

Forgive me, Lord, it was a monologue and not a dialogue.

I explained my idea and did not get his;

Since I didn’t listen, I learned nothing,

Since I didn’t listen, I didn’t help,

Since I didn’t listen, we didn’t communicate.

            Forgive me, Lord, for we were connected,

            and now we are cut off.

Michel Quoist

Be encouraged from the Word

Dear friends, do not be surprised at the painful trial you are suffering, as though something strange were happening to you. But rejoice that you participate in the sufferings of Christ, so that you may be overjoyed when his glory is revealed.

1 Peter 4:12-13, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

Struggle and sorrow are not license to give way to self-doubt, to self-pity, and to defeat, but an opportunity to find a renewed spirit and renewed strength to carry on. How else, but through struggle, are we to get to know the full measure of the Lord’s capacity for intervention in our lives? If there are no burdens, how can we know that he can be there to lift them?

Condoleezza Rice

A prayer to strengthen your day

Make me humble and obedient, peaceable and pious.

Jeremy Taylor

Be encouraged from the Word

This is what the LORD says:

"In the time of my favor I will answer you, and in the day of salvation I will help you;

I will keep you and will make you  to be a covenant for the people,

to restore the land and to reassign its desolate inheritances.”

Isaiah 49:8, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

The days of Elijah are gone but the God of Elijah lives today. There are no untarnished haloes in any generation, and looking at heroes of any era is disappointing. Look not to “the good old days” but to the God of all the days.

Vance Havner

A prayer to strengthen your day

O Lord, sea of love and goodness, let me not fear too much the storms and winds of my daily life, and let me know that there is ebb and flow but that the sea remains the sea.

Henri Nouwen

Be encouraged from the Word

You will seek me and find me when you seek me with all your heart.

Jeremiah 29:13, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

The Lord guides when men are honestly groping. He gives us fire when we have built the altar. He works His miracle when we have provided the five loaves. He sends His light through diligent thinking. The divine power is given through the consecrated strength.

John Henry Jowett

A prayer to strengthen your day

Mighty Father

In times of stress

Grant us your peacefulness.

In times of weakness

Grant us your forcefulness.

In times of distress

Grant us your hopefulness.

In times of sadness

Grant us your joyfulness

And give us awareness.

David Adam

Be encouraged from the Word

Jesus said to her, "I am the resurrection and the life. He who believes in me will live, even though he dies; and whoever lives and believes in me will never die. Do you believe this?"

John 11:25-26, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

Since my Jesus is to get praise and honor and glory through this trying of my faith, I am willing, yes, even thankful for every moment of it.

Hannah Whitall Smith

A prayer to strengthen your day

At your bidding, O Master, I will let down my nets. And at your bidding I will leave them forever behind. For what you have to offer is infinitely more than all the seas of this world ever could.

Ken Gire

Be encouraged from the Word

Therefore, strengthen your feeble arms and weak knees. Make level paths for your feet, so that the lame may not be disabled, but rather healed.

Hebrews 12:12-13, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

God will unlock the real meaning and blessing of His Word only to those whose will is definitely set upon obeying it.

Andrew Murray

A prayer to strengthen your day

Deliver me, O God, from a false humility that denies your gifts and from an assertive pride that denies your lordship. Help me to see myself as you see me, to accept my limitations and use my abilities to the glory of your name. Amen.

Eugene H. Peterson

Be encouraged from the Word

Can a mother forget the baby at her breast and have no compassion on the child she has borne? Though she may forget, I will not forget you! See, I have engraved you on the palms of my hands; your walls are ever before me.

Isaiah 49:15-16, NIV

Wisdom from fellow pilgrims

A characteristic of the true prophet has always been love.

A. W. Tozer

A prayer to strengthen your day

Help me, O Lord, to be more loving. Help me, O Lord, not to be afraid to love the outcast, the leper, the unmarried pregnant woman, the traitor to the State, the man out of prison. Help me by my love to restore the faith of the disillusioned, the disappointed, the early bereaved. Help me by my love to be the witness of your love.

Alan Paton

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