Thankfulness {Day 19} Encouraging Scriptures

I am so very thankful for encouraging scripture. I know that if I am feeling discouraged about anything, I can look to God’s word for wisdom and truth. This is one way we can use the sword of the Spirit (Ephesians 6) to fight off the fiery darts of discouragement and despair from the evil one.

So when I am feeling guilty and ashamed of how I lived the majority of my life (apart from Christ), I turn to Joel and Psalms:

{Joel 2:25}

I will repay you for the years the locusts have eaten—
the great locust and the young locust,
the other locusts and the locust swarm—
my great army that I sent among you.

{Psalm 103:12}

As far as the east is from the west,

so far has He removed our transgressions from us.

When I am down because of various trials and sufferings, either caused by my own actions (boldness for Christ or even discipline for a sin) or just general sufferings (like sickness), I turn to 2 Corinthians, James and Philippians:

 {2 Corinthians 1:5}
For just as the sufferings of Christ are ours in abundance,
so also our comfort is abundant through Christ.

{James 1:2-4}

Consider it all joy, my brethren, when you encounter various trials,
knowing that the testing of your faith produces endurance.

And let endurance have its perfect result,

so that you may be perfect and complete, lacking in nothing.

{Philippians 1:6}

For I am confident of this very thing,

that He who began a good work in you will perfect it

until the day of Christ Jesus.

When I feel I will never have victory over a specific sin in my life, I turn to Romans:

{Romans 6:12-14}
Therefore do not let sin reign in your mortal body

so that you obey its lusts,
and do not go on presenting the members of your body

to sin as instruments of unrighteousness;
but present yourselves to God as those alive from the dead,
and your members as instruments of righteousness to God.
For sin shall not be master over you,

for you are not under law but under grace.

And when I am upset because it seems the unrighteous are being blessed while they curse the name of God and the righteous suffer for Christ (I think of this especially when I am praying for the persecuted church), I turn to Philippians:

{Philippians 2:9-11}
For this reason also, God highly exalted Him,
and bestowed on Him the name which is above every name,
so that at the name of Jesus every knee will bow,
of those who are in heaven and on earth and under the earth,
and that every tongue will confess that
Jesus Christ is Lord, to the glory of God the Father.

Thank You, Lord for Your Holy Word. It is perfect, infallible, accurate, and complete.  

All Scripture is inspired by God and profitable for teaching,
 for reproof, for correction, for training in righteousness;  
so that the man of God may be adequate,
equipped for every good work.
{1 Timothy 3:16-17}