Today's Godly Reminder - Galatians 6:9

Do not be discouraged from doing good. Never get tired of doing great things. So, let’s not allow ourselves to get fatigued doing good. At the right time, we will harvest a good crop if we don’t give up, or quit.

Don’t get tired of helping others. You will be rewarded when the time is right if you don’t give up. So let’s not get tired of doing what is good. At just the right time, we will reap a harvest of blessing if we don’t give up.

The Daily Grace - Motivated by Love

In the 1920s, Bobby Jones dominated the golfing world, despite being an amateur. In one film about his life, Bobby Jones: Stroke of Genius, there is a scene where a professional golfer asks Bobby when he is going to quit being an amateur and grab for the money like everyone else does. Jones answers by explaining that the word amateur comes from the Latin amo - to love. His answer was clear: He played golf because he loved the game.

Our motives, why we do what we do, make all the difference. This certainly applies to those who are followers of Jesus Christ. In his letter to the Corinthian church, Paul gives us an example of this. Throughout the epistle, he defended his conduct, character, and calling as an apostle of Christ. In response to those who questioned his motives for ministry, Paul said, "Christ's love compels us because we are convinced that one died for all, and therefore all died. And he died for all, that those who live should no longer live for themselves but for him who died for them and was raised again" (2 Cor. 5:14-15).

Christ's love is the greatest of all motivators. It causes those who follow Him to live for Him, not for themselves. What are some of the ways your understanding of Christ and His love has shaped your motives and your actions? In what ways would you like to see God work in you now? We are shaped and fashioned by what we love most.

Today We Pray

Dear God, the author of all good, I come to You for the grace another day will require for its duties and events. I step out into a wicked world; I carry about with me an evil heart. I know that without You I can do nothing, that everything with which I shall be concerned, however harmless in itself, may prove an occasion of sin or folly unless I am kept by Your power.

Let me not become weary in doing Your work. I pray for Your Holy Spirit to grant me a sense of enthusiasm, lest I be led astray and into sin by boredom and unconcern. “Thy will be done” in all things and in every way.

May every creature be made good to me by prayer and Your will. Teach me how to use the world and not abuse it, to improve my talents, to redeem my time, to walk in wisdom toward those without, and in kindness to those within, to do good to all men, and especially to my fellow Christians. And to You, O God, be the glory.

Amen

Today's Godly Reminder - 2 Corinthians 5:14

Our firm decision is to work from this focused center: One man died for everyone. That puts everyone in the same boat. He included everyone in his death so that everyone could also be included in his life, a resurrection life, a far better life than people ever lived on their own. Whatever we do, it is certainly not for our own profit but because Christ’s love controls us now. Since we believe that Christ died for all of us, we should also believe that we have died to the old life we used to live. We are ruled by Christ’s love for us. We are certain that if one person died for everyone else, then all of us have died.

The Daily Grace - Always in His Care

Veteran news reporter Scott Pelley never goes on assignment without his travel essentials - a shortwave radio, camera, indestructible suitcase, laptop computer, phone, and an emergency locator beacon that works anywhere. "You extend the antenna, push two buttons, and it sends a signal to a satellite connected to the National Oceanic and Atmospheric Administration", Pelley says. "It tells them who and where I am. Depending on what country you're in, they'll either send a rescue team - or not" (AARP The Magazine). Pelley has never needed to use the beacon, but he never travels without it.

But when it comes to our relationship with God, we don't need radios, phones, or emergency beacons. No matter how precarious our circumstances become, He already knows who and where we are. The psalmist celebrated this as he wrote, "You have searched me, Lord, and you know me. . . You are familiar with all my ways" (Ps. 139:1-3). Our needs are never hidden from God, and we are never separated from His care.

Today, we can say with confidence, "If I rise on the wings of the dawn, if I settle on the far side of the sea, even there your hand will guide me, your right hand will hold me fast" (vv. 9-10). The Lord knows who we are, where we are, and what we need. We are always in His care.

Today We Pray

Dear God, I pray that this day my conduct will be like that You have set for Your clergy: Above reproach. May I be this day temperate, sensible, respectable, hospitable, able to teach, not given to drunkenness, and not violent, but gentle. May I never be quarrelsome, always seeking peace even in disagreement, and may my love be for You and my fellow man, not for money.

Give me grace to endeavor after a truly Christian spirit to seek to attain that temper of forbearance and patience of which my blessed savior has set me the highest example. Incline me, O God, to think humbly of myself, to be severe only in the examination of my own conduct, to consider my fellow creatures with kindness, and to judge of all they say and do with that charity that I would desire from them myself. Grant me a good reputation with outsiders, so that I will not fall into disgrace and the snare of the devil. 

Now may the God of peace who brought again from the dead our Lord Jesus Christ, the great shepherd of the sheep, by the blood of the eternal covenant, equip us with every good thing that we may do His will, working in us that which is pleasing in His sight; through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever.

Amen

Today's Godly Reminder - 2 Corinthians 5:18

God reconciled us to Himself through Christ, making us acceptable to Him. And, gave us the ministry of reconciliation so that by our example we might bring others to Him. He received us into favor, brought us into harmony with Himself that by word and deed we might aim to bring others into harmony with Him. It is God who settled the relationship between us and him, and then called us to settle our relationships with each other. 

 All these new things are from God who brought us back to himself through what Christ Jesus did. And God has given us the privilege of urging everyone to come into his favor and be reconciled to him. God has done it all! He sent Christ to make peace between himself and us, and he has given us the work of making peace between himself and others. And all of this is a gift from God, who brought us back to himself through Christ. And God has given us this task of reconciling people to him.