Daily Encouragement: Year 1, Day 89
From Handbook to Renewal
The Attributes of God
O Sovereign Lord, You are God! Your words are true, and You have promised good things to Your servant. (2 Samuel 7:28)
The Lord is the Spirit, and where the Spirit of the Lord is, there is freedom. (2 Corinthians 3:17)
The Works of God
When You promised to make a new covenant with the house of Israel, You said, “I will put My law within them and write it on their hearts. I will be their God, and they will be My people. No longer will each one teach his neighbor, or each one his brother, saying, ‘Know the Lord,’ because they shall all know Me, from the least of them to the greatest of them. For I will forgive their iniquity and will remember their sins no more.” (Jeremiah 31:33–34)
Jesus took bread, gave thanks, and broke it, and gave it to His disciples, saying, “Take and eat; this is My body.” Then He took the cup, gave thanks, and offered it to them, saying, “Drink from it, all of you. This is My blood of the new covenant, which is poured out for many for the forgiveness of sins.” (Matthew 26:26–28)
My Relationship to God
Having the firstfruits of the Spirit, I groan inwardly as I wait eagerly for my adoption, the redemption of my body. For in hope I have been saved, but hope that is seen is not hope; for who hopes for what he sees? But if I hope for what I do not yet see, I eagerly wait for it with perseverance. (Romans 8:23–25)
The God of hope will fill me with all joy and peace as I trust in Him, so that I may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit. (Romans 15:13)
The Character I Want to Cultivate
I will not worry about my life, what I will eat or what I will drink; or about my body, what I will wear. Life is more than food, and the body more than clothes. The birds of the air do not sow or reap or gather into barns, and yet my heavenly Father feeds them. Am I not much more valuable than they? Who by worrying can add a single hour to his life? And why do I worry about clothes? I will consider how the lilies of the field grow; they neither labor nor spin, yet not even Solomon in all his splendor was dressed like one of these. But if God so clothes the grass of the field, which is here today and tomorrow is thrown into the fire, will He not much more clothe me? So I will not worry, saying, “What shall I eat?” or “What shall I drink?” or “What shall I wear?” For the pagans run after all these things, and my heavenly Father knows that I need them. But I will seek first His kingdom and His righteousness, and all these things will be added to me. (Matthew 6:25–33; Luke 12:22–31)
I will keep my life free from the love of money and be content with what I have, for You have said, “I will never leave you, nor will I forsake you.” (Hebrews 13:5)
My Relationship to Others
I pray that words may be given to me, that I may open my mouth boldly to make known the mystery of the gospel. (Ephesians 6:19)
I pray that God may open to me a door for the word, so that I may speak the mystery of Christ and proclaim it clearly, as I ought to speak. (Colossians 4:3–4)