May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who loved us and by his grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, encourage your hearts and strengthen you in every good deed and word.
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17
Everything that was written in the past was written to teach us, so that through endurance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.
Romans 15:4
Indeed, the Bible is such a gift to us. It is a treasure trove of hope, an artesian spring of refreshment, a perpetual supply of redemptive surprises, an always-working GPS for return trips to gospel sanity. (scotty smith from a prayer in praise of God who encourages us)
i love that line "an always-working GPS for return trips to gospel sanity." especially after this weekend...
on friday morning i was taking a group of high school cross country runners up to carrollton, GA for their meet. i programmed my GPS and then followed it. straight into alabama. WHAT?!?!?!?
my knowledge of geography is scant/nonexistant. but i was pretty sure that i shouldn't go through alabama to get into georgia. it seemed a bit counterintuitive. but we got there. in due time. a bit longer than the average trip. but it is one way to get there.
so my GPS was a little faulty this weekend. i have a lot of things in my life that work-ish. they get me where i need to be, eventually...
...but nothing works with the same blazing pinpoint accuracy in the same way the Scriptures work to return me to gospel sanity. emotional sanity. peaceful sanity. joyful sanity. hopeful sanity.
God has been incredibly sweet to me through His Word and in always bringing me straight to gospel sanity (He never takes me via alabama.) i can testify to His long suffering patience and His mercies being new EVERY day. i would think that He would tire of me asking Him the same questions every day, "how long Lord?" , "exactly what are you doing with this situation Lord?", "did you really mean what you said to me yesterday and the day before Lord?" yet, i see that david in the psalms asked those same kinds of questions over and over and over. and was still called the apple of God's eye. perhaps i am the pear of God's eye.
this was the verse i ended with last night teaching grounded for our youth at church. we are making our way through ecclesiastes (slower than i made my way to georgia) and we are up to chapter 5. it was a great reminder to me that God is in the details of EVERY day.
ecclesiastes 5:20 (the message)