BIBLE READING: 1 Thessalonians 2:1-3 “You yourselves know, dear brothers and sisters, that our visit to you was not a failure. You know how badly we had been treated at Philippi just before we came to you and how much we suffered there. Yet our God gave us the courage to declare his Good News to you boldly, in spite of great opposition. So you can see we were not preaching with any deceit or impure motives or trickery.” NLT
BLOG: When I was a kid I had, what I thought, was the coolest bike on the block. All the other kids wanted to ride my bike. Problem was, I couldn’t get the training wheels off. I tried and tried but to no avail. I couldn’t ride a bike. My mom helped me. My dad tried, until he was exhausted. In the end I just kept trying. I skinned my knees, my knuckles, and elbows. I fell in the dirt, on concrete, on pavement and the ever so painful gravel. I even ended up in the bushes once. OUCH!
But one day I all of a sudden got it. I couldn't tell you what happened or how it happened. I started yelling for my mom to come and see. She ran out and with great relief on her face said, “Finally!”
2 Corinthians 4:16-18 “So we do not lose heart. Though our outer self is wasting away, our inner self is being renewed day by day. For this light momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal.”
I know that some days you feel like me trying to ride a bicycle. You get up only to fall down. You try to think the best about people. You try to love them. You try not to get angry with some of their antics. You try to pray and read your Bible. But some days you look like a lanky teenage boy who has kissed the dirt one to many times.
Don’t give up. Little by little you will gain ground. But only if you do one thing. Do it for your future, not for you perfection. If you do this for yourself you will boast about how “holy” and “good” that you are. Do it for things unseen. The things that cannot be labeled or things that would make you popular. Do it to strengthen your spirit and draw you closer to Christ.
PRAY: Dear Jesus, I fall down a lot. Help me stand up. AMEN.
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