His Encouragement: Compassionate hearts

His Encouragement: Compassionate hearts

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This post is part of the series His Encouragement

Other posts in this series:

  1. His Encouragement: Biblical Inspiration for your Thursday
  2. His Encouragement: Psalm 147:3
  3. His Encouragement: Psalm 37:3

Welcome! Welcome, dearest friends, to His Encouragement: Biblical Inspiration for Your Thursday. Every Thursday, a few blogging friends and I will each bring you a Bible passage and a little hope-filled discussion. We pray that these Thursday posts help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you.

Today’s Encouragement

Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive.

— Colossians 3:12-13, ESV

With only a few days left in the month of December, one year is ending and another is beginning. For many, this is the time for reflection and resolution. Whether your 2018 was amazing or terrible, filled with joy or sorrow, or a mixture of all of these, let us remember to always seek out the Lord’s blessings in our lives.

It has been a privilege and an honor to share words of encouragement with you this last year. In many ways, writing down my own struggles and feelings has been reassuring to me as much as I hope it has been encouraging for you. Feel free to peruse all of the His Encouragement articles any time you would like.

As we look forward to the new year, I wanted to share the story of an oak tree. This mighty oak stood tall and strong for many, many years against all sorts of challenges: blizzards, fierce winds, torrential rains, floods. It seemed like nothing could cause this mighty tree to fall! Then, one day, it was attacked by a tiny, seemingly insignificant beetle. First one beetle, then another, then another. This mighty oak withstood the minuscule attacks for awhile but eventually it was overwhelmed by hundreds of tiny beetles. One day, it could stand no more and the mighty tree fell.

Friends, people are like the oak and the tiny beetles are the little thoughtless words and actions that we say and do everyday, perhaps even unintentionally, that cause harm. A little hurt here and there over time adds up and can cause great damage to another person.

That is why, as we close out 2018 and look forward to 2019, I pray that we all resolve to take Colossians 3:12-13 to heart. “Put on then, as God’s chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience…”

Our words and our deeds matter. Even though we may have our bad days and we might stumble, we should always strive to live our faith daily and be filled with compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and gentleness. Let us be forgiving to others when we have been wronged, as the Lord has forgiven us countless times.

Our words and our deeds matter. We should always strive to live our faith daily and be filled with compassion, kindness, humility, patience, and gentleness. Click To Tweet

I also love how verse 13 says “bearing with one another”. According to the Strong’s concordance, the verb translated here as “bearing” can also be translated “to hold up”. What imagery! The Lord calls us to hold each other up when we are weak or going through difficulties. I am so grateful to my family, friends, co-workers, and acquaintances who have held me up this last year, born my sorrows and griefs with me, and provided shoulders to cry and help when desperately needed.

Let us never take such things for granted and always remember to praise the Lord.

Happy New Year!

 

Be sure to also visit my fellow bloggers and read their encouragement for your Thursday as well:

Hi there, blogger. Would you like to join us in sharing encouragement from the Word of God every Thursday? Don’t be shy! Contact Trisha or Nicole today!

His Encouragement for Your Thursday

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