Acts 23:11 (Courage)

* Welcome God every morning before work by taking ~5 min to read this Living In Faith Exchange (LIFE) Group devotion (life-devotions.blogspot.com), which has snippets from Living Faith (livingfaith.com).

The following night the Lord stood by him [Paul] and said, 'Take courage. For just as you have borne witness to my cause in Jerusalem, so you must also bear witness in Rome.'" Acts 23:11

Living Faith snippets: "Not for the fainthearted, parenting requires the courage to know when to hold a child tightly within the shelter of our arms and when to nudge her forward as we step back with held breath. Then, too, there are times when there is nothing we can do but pray. Our children do not belong to us, but to God, who blessed us with them. How fitting then that we should entrust them to his care." by Phillis Harris-Brooks

Rich's comments: Christ gave St. Paul a little pick-me-up as He stood beside him and said, “Take courage.” That’s what He says to us each day. He may not physically appear to us, but He does send us the Holy Spirit and one of His gifts is fortitude or courage. No matter what we are going through - no matter how dire our predicament - all we need to do is reach out to Christ and take courage. St. Paul understood Christ was sending him to Rome. I even wonder if he knew that the entire future of the Church would be dictated by his decision. He also probably understood that he would die in Rome for his faith and preaching. Yet, he took courage and did what he had to do to get to Rome. Lord, thank You for standing beside me always. Amen.

Through Christ Our Lord,

Rich

Romans 12:12

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