Good morning, and welcome to His Encouragement Thursday! I don’t know about you, but Thursdays are my struggle day of the week. By Thursday, I have already been working hard at school and at home, and I just wish it would hurry up and be Friday already. LOL! I definitely need a little extra Jesus time on Thursdays.
Trisha, my blogger friend at Joy of Reading, and I decided on calling this post “His Encouragement” because our real source of peace, strength, and security can only come from Jesus Christ. He, and He alone, is our constant! We pray and hope that these Thursday posts become a real encouragement to you and help you end your week strong in God’s love and purpose for you. God bless!
Today’s Thursday Encouragement comes from:
Matthew 23:28 (ESV)
So you also outwardly appear righteous to others, but within you are full of hypocrisy and lawlessness.
Yesterday, a woman I consider a friend posted something on Facebook that made my skin crawl. This woman professes to be a follower of Jesus Christ, but her posts and comments on social media, plus her daily actions, prove to me she and I do not obey the same God. She is a follower of the god she has created. She is a pick-and-choose Christian who quotes Bible verses that suit her liberal arguments and feelings.
Initially, I was upset and wanted to unfriend this person not just from Facebook, but from my life as well.
But then God whispered to my heart the Words of Matthew 23:28 … and, He wasn’t doing it to justify my feelings toward this woman. He whispered them to me in order to convict me!
How many times do I mess up in a day? How many times am I judgmental and mean? How many times a day am I angry? How many times a day do I forgo offering mercy and grace? How many times an hour do I misspeak and/or use words God would not be pleased by?
When I started to consider the ginormous tree trunk in my eye, I began to be humbled by just how much forgiveness I need from God daily. I must work on and correct, with the Holy Spirit’s help, my hypocrisy and lawlessness. I need to focus more on God and His Word rather than the awful words of my friend. And, I need to pray hard. I need to pray hard for myself to overcome my need to judge others, but I need to pray for my friend too.
The positive that God showed me is that my friend knows the Name “Jesus Christ.” That is enough of a seed for God, the Master Gardener, to work with. I need to trust His plan for my friend even when her vitriolic rhetoric and violent, liberal ideas frighten me. God’s got her just as He has me and you, my dear friend!
NOW, IT’S YOUR TURN!
WHAT BIBLICAL VERSE IS ENCOURAGING YOU TODAY?
Check out more Thursday Encouragement from my fellow blogger friends:
Trisha @ Joy of Reading
Jacquelyn @ A Heavenly Home
Jessica @ A Baker’s Perspective
Becca @ The Becca Files
Jenny @ Author Jenny Lynn
Gina @ Stories by Gina!
If you would like to join us: please contact Trisha or Nicole
The Christian Fiction Girl 
1Corinthians 1:9
God is faithful, by whom you were called into the fellowship of his Son, Jesus Christ our Lord.
God is faithful even when we are not. We can cone to Him because of what Jesus did!
Thanks for your encouragement posts, Nicole!
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Paula, thank you for sharing this wonderful verse. Your choice has greatly encouraged me today. I hope you have a wonderful day today, Paula! Blessings to you. 😀
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It takes a big person to assess what their thoughts and actions are producing. Thank you for sharing. I’m glad I follow your blog.
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Aw! Thank you! I am so glad you follow. I appreciate the support. Hope you are having a great day. 😀
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Thank you for sharing this verse today, and the reminder that we need to not focus on what other’s are doing, but what God is calling us to do.
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It’s so easy to fall into the act of labeling others’ sins. It was a necessary reminder for me today, Trisha! Hope you’re doing well. 😁
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Oh my goodness, yes!! We had a situation this week where a family that has been at our church pretty much since the beginning is thinking about leaving. Let’s just say their walk with the Lord, from appearances sake, doesn’t seem like what it used to be. What is our initial reaction? To pray for them to see the err in their ways, be mad at them, and make judgmental accusations. Shame on us – which we realized pretty much immediately. Yes, we need to pray for them, but not in the way we originally thought. We just need to pray that they will cotinue their walk with the Lord and not wander astray. I love this post. I think it’s my favorite of yours! So many people forget, myself constantly, that while we are quick to judge others for their faults, we forget to look in the mirror and work on our own. I’m glad your friend has you around. I know the Lord will use you to continue to make an impact on his/her life!
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convicting but true! It’s an easy trap for us to think that we are “better off” than others because our sin is different but we all need Jesus just the same.
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Yes! My husband tells me that all the time.
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