Good morning…
Today I wake to the perfect “Verse of the Day” from Bible Gateway, the online site that helps me to treasure hunt for companioning Scriptures for each of my morning messages.
May the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind toward each other that Christ Jesus had, so that with one mind and one voice you may glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, (Romans 15:5-6, NIV).
This “Verse of the Day” appears the morning after I pushed send on the second version of Lingering on the Line: 2017 Summertime Devotional. At 4:07 pm I sent in the words for Northside Church’s June-July-August daily devotional, forty-eight hours after I had pushed a wrong button and lost the entire first manuscript, a 114-page manuscript God and I had been crafting for days and days and days.
Like I told you, after my idiotic mistake, my flawed humanness spiraled me down into quiet and tired. Disappointed and angry at myself. Completely spent. I drifted to sleep that night thinking, “No 2017 summertime devotional.” But God woke me and coaxed me forward with His attitude of mind: “Someone out there might get to know Me better this summer because of these words.” My fingers ran a second writing marathon at break neck speed, and God and I rewrote the entire manuscript in about forty hours, midnight one day until 4:07 pm the next.
I love the hug-at-the-finish-line of this scripture verse the morning after my mistake and my second marathon. We are in relationship with the God who gives endurance and encouragement. We are in relationship with Jesus Christ who had an attitude of mind drenched with our Father’s endurance and encouragement. With the Holy Spirit of God beating in our hearts, we now with one mind and one voice glorify the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. We endure. We have courage.
Today, may the God who gives endurance and encouragement give you the same attitude of mind as our Lord Jesus Christ, who …for the joy set before him he endured the cross… (Hebrews 12:2, NIV),
Sue
