Day 17 - Ageless Encouragement

Today's reading is from Colossians, another of Paul's letters.  This book is very short, but I did make a few notes.

Ageless Encouragement
All of Paul's letters are very encouraging.  These two particular verses jumped off the page for me today as Paul speaking these words of encouragement to us believers through the ages:

"So then, just as you received Christ Jesus as Lord, continue to live in him, rooted and built up in him, strengthened in the faith as you were taught, and overflowing with thankfulness." Col 2:6-7

The last 8-9 months I've been "overflowing with thankfulness".  God has moved so much in my family's life that it's been just amazing.

Change Your Mind Set
"Set your minds on things above, not on earthly things." Col 3:2

I feel this is always the biggest challenge facing believers, especially me.  I look at my priorities and what comes before what on my list of things to do.  The world has so many temptations to take me away from where I really need to be focusing my attention that it is really scary.  So how do we keep our minds on "things above"?  The first thought that crossed my mind was "Certainly not by just going to church on Sundays."  While that's a start, it's only a few hours of the entire week!  If we're really going to deprogram ourselves and get away from all of these temptations, we're going to need more than an hour every Sunday.  Daily prayer is a good start.  Reading the Bible daily is even better!  Joining a small group is incredibly helpful. Serving the community on the week nights or on Saturdays is a good way to keep that mind set.  And one real easy one that some people miss is to hang out a lot with other believers.  This is very encouraging and helps to stay focused on what's important.  At the very least, it will minimize the amount of temptation you are subjecting yourself to.

More Instruction
Paul provides some more good instruction in this letter to the church in Colossae.

"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and dearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the Lord forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Col 3:12-14

Man! Just reading through this list of virtues I see so many areas I HAVE to work on.  Really, re-reading the five listed above, I have to work on ALL of them!  I know that my initial reactions are sometimes completely opposite of these.  Man, I pray that God will do a work in me.

That's All Folk!
Day 17 wrapped up!  I've noticed that this whole weeks worth of readings are fairly short.  Day 18 is Ephesians and Philemon. Day 19 is Philippians.  Day 20 is 1 Timothy.  All of these are short books.  But you know me! I can ramble, so I'm sure I'll have not shortage of words for my journal on those days!  Until then...