Words of Encouragement

MONDAY
“O give thanks unto the LORD; for he is good; for his mercy endureth for ever.” 1 Chronicles 16:34



IN THE NAME. He is good. I’ve been ready lately about praising God. One thing that is so important to our worship is in our understanding of who God is. Now this isn’t to say we can understand fully all there is to know about God, but we can understand the traits and characteristic he has revealed to us in his word. So we will be taking a look at some of the names and/or attributes of God.


Today’s verse starts us off with telling us God is good. One meaning of the word good that I believe captures what the scripture writer was trying to get is this – Having the qualities that are desirable or distinguishing in a particular thing, Superior to the average.

To call God good is in reality saying that he is superior to anything we can say about ourselves. He has the qualities that we should desire and he is distinguished in there is no other God. In our understanding of this great God as good, we then should give thanks unto him.

God only is good. I’m not good when I compare myself to the original. I am striving for perfection, but God has and is perfection. So in my time of worship and praise, I must first begin to understand that God is good. He only is and I must humble myself before him. I then must give him honor and respect as I thank him for his goodness and for his mercy. For out of his goodness comes his desire to show us mercy. This is one of the qualities that are to be desired a merciful spirit.

Today let us praise him for his goodness and for his mercy that never ends and is in full supply. Today seek to exhibit the Godly “good” in you. Seek to allow his goodness to show through you to others in need of a glimpse of what it looks like. Praying for us today as we worship him.


TUESDAY
“But we preach Christ crucified unto the Jews a stumblingblock, and unto the Greeks foolishness; But unto them which are called, both Jews and Greeks Christ the power of God and the wisdom of God. Because the foolishness of God is wiser than men; and the weakness of God is stronger than men” 1 Corinthians 1:23-25


IN THE NAME. He is powerful. What does having power embody? With power comes strength. It is having the ability or official capacity to exercise control or authority. God has authority over everything. He is all-powerful. He has the official capacity because he created the heavens and the earth. His say is final!


The name of Christ carries that power. To those that do not accept God’s authority Christ then becomes a stumbling block for them. It’s a stumbling block because it is what will “trip” them up in the end, their refusal to accept Christ. It will be there downfall. But to those that are children of God, the name of Christ carries the power of God.


There is no situation that I can face that even with all my strength, that God’s strength and power isn’t greater. So knowing this, why do we always try to work things out ourselves? Why do we think we can handle things as if we have any power at all? See I have to begin to acknowledge that I am powerless against the things of this world, its trials and temptations. The power and strength that I have comes only from the Lord. So everyday that I am able to stand I should worship the Lord. I should give my thanks to him for keeping me in spite of myself.


Today let’s us worship him for being the power that saves, the power that sanctifies and the power that will keep us until the end. Praying for us today as we worship him for being the authority of our lives.


WEDNESDAY
For thou art great and doest wondrous things: thou art God alone.” Psalm 86:10

IN THE NAME. He is great. When you think of the word great, other words come to mind. Remarkable, Outstanding, Superior, Powerful, Grand, of noble character, and influential, just to name a few. These all fit God. He is a remarkable God with no one that can compare, for he is God alone. He is outstanding and he does outstanding things; that we cannot completely understand. He is superior. His works are grand to behold. He is a great God!

I rejoice in knowing that the God I worship and serve is a great God. He is not dead but alive. You cannot contain him in some small figure and set him upon your table. God is not a god that man made to worship. Instead we are the created, created to worship the creator.

We should worship and praise him because of who he is. He is the great I am! Because of who he is we should give him glory. This is a time of praising him. Yes we all have needs before the Lord, yet let’s take more time to just remind ourselves of who he is and just mediate on that. See if we understand that this great and powerful God cares about us, we would be less worried about what tomorrow will bring.

So today as we pray for ourselves let’s also pray for God to show his greatness to all that are in need of seeing him. God’s greatness can be revealed in any situation and in circumstances; we just have to have “eyes” to see.


THURSDAY
“O LORD our Lord how excellent is thy name in all the earth! Who hast set thy glory above the heavens.” Psalm 8:1

IN THE NAME. He is excellent. Excellent – of the highest or finest quality; exceptionally good superior. Yes God’s name is superior! To be able to call on the name of the Lord and have his attributes available to me is awesome! God is the highest, for his ways and his thoughts are higher than mine. He is of the finest qualities. He is goodness; holiness, joy, love, peace and the qualities are endless.

To take the time and lift my voice in praise to this excellent God is pure joy to my soul. I reap the rewards of the worship that I give to God. Have you ever thought about that? We say we are giving worship to God (as if he really needs it) as if we are doing him a favor. We give him worship because he is worthy of it. We give him worship and honor because in us doing so, we are reminded of the magnifices of God and then we are the richer for it. We worship him because we were made to give him worship.

To be able to call upon the excellent name of the Lord is something we have much to rejoice about. Yes we have situations and circumstances that face us, but he is far superior to what my problems are. Even if you have lost everything of importance to you, you are not completely destroyed if you have the love of the father. If you have your hand in his excellent hand, you are in capable hands. God hasn’t allowed our situations to destroy us. He is perfecting us. He is allowing the winds and the storms of this life to day by day bring you closer to him. He is preparing us for himself. He even wants us to know that if the sound of the storm gets to loud and we can’t “hear him”, he wants us to know that he is there. The storm has not drowned out his Excellency. He is the Lord and he hasn’t forgotten about us. Everything is working in his plan.


This week when you go to worship, praise him, praise him and then praise him so more! Let us as his children become more concerned with praising him and less about what things look like around us. Things are in the hand of an excellent and capable God. Praying for us as we grow in our understanding of this wonderful God we serve.


FRIDAY
“And we have known and believed the love that God hath to us. God is love; and he that dwelleth in love dwelleth in God, and God in him.” 1 John 4:16

IN THE NAME. He is love. We are continuing our look at the name and/or attributes of God. We are looking at these attributes to remind us why we should worship and praise God. We look today at the attribute, love.

I’ve heard it before from people as they say that God is love, but what they really mean is God is “loving”. He is that but he is so much more. One of the attributes of God is he is love. His nature is love. It is from that nature that everything flows. It was from his love that he created us. It was from that love that he loved us first and made previsions for us. It is from that love, his very nature that all that he gives to us comes from.

So when you or I say we belong to God then we have to take on this attribute, because it flows to us and it should flow through us as children of the king. If I belong to God then I should be dwelling in his love. When I am “living” in love then God is indeed living in me.

If I don’t love my neighbor that I see every day, how can I truly say I love God? If I don’t love the things he loves who am I truly following? See as I live God’s love then it should become real in me. I should be willing to make sacrifices for the things that God loves. God loves the lost and wants them to come to him. I should have a love for the lost and am willing to be used for that purpose. God loves the brokenhearted and the mistreated. I should be willing to comfort with the comfort that I have received. And the list is endless.

So today let us make a mental list of the ways that God shows us his love. Then let us in turn begin to be love in the lives of those around us. Praying for us today to be ambassadors of God’s love to those seeking. Let us help them see true love and what it looks like.