March Scripture Writing Plan: Encouragement

Happy almost March sweet friends!

The scripture writing plan this month is over something we all need from time to time:
Encouragement

There are days when everything seems to go wrong and literally everything you touch seems to fall apart. Life can often be full of sadness and trials and pain.  We can easily begin to feel sad and overwhelmed by all of the terrible things happening in our broken world today. We know in our heads that God is our strength and is with us always, but sometimes it is difficult for our battered and bruised hearts to remember that truth. It's easy to question our worth 

and for us to even occasionally lose hope.

Thankfully God's word is full of encouraging and uplifting reminders to remain steadfast in HIM. These verses can help us when we are down and feeling discouraged.  These verses remind us that He is with us, in the stinky and difficult times. He hasn't left- He is there, always.

Our only hope is to look to Jesus and that's where each of these verses point us- to Him! He is our comforter, I pray that these verses will encourage you 

when you are feeling down and bless you greatly!

FYI: I made the plan 31 days and plan to do that with

all topical plans in the future so that they can be done any month-

not just the month I write them for.

TO PRINT: You can find a copy of the plan in English and Spanish in the folder HERE.

{Just a reminder, don't try to print the images below or they will be blurry. Be sure to click the link to download a PDF copy!}

Jesus Loves Me, This I Know

On our honeymoon my husband and I went on a fabulous cruise for 7 days. We were seated at dinner each night with a couple who were also newlyweds. The husband was very short and round, quite a bit older than his bride and a little on the nerdy side. His bride was younger and very, very beautiful. It was obvious after just a few minutes of sitting with them that he was enamored with her and seemed to need LOTS of reassuring from her. So much so that at least once a minute he uttered the words….”I love you so muchhhhhhhh”. Each time he said it to his new bride he would stop and wait for her to confirm her love in return. I’m not exaggerating- he would stop mid-sentence in a conversation to someone else and say the exact same words (“I love you so muchhhhhhh”) every few minutes. It happened so often that it became comical and Tony and I even started to count the number of times he said it during a single meal and were always in the double digits.

At the time I thought it was so funny but honestly if I think about it, I’m the same way- so often needing reassurance that I’m really and truly loved because I often feel so unworthy.. I have a secret fear that I think many people also have but don’t like to admit. Deep down I fear that if people really knew me, the true me- all of the good, the bad, and the ugly parts of me- the things I think and the things I say under my breath in anger or frustration- they wouldn’t truly love me. I think we all feel that way about people and even about God at times and we question His love for us. Thankfully our Lord knew we would struggle with this and over and over and over again in His word He tells of us His great love for us! 

1 John 3:1 says….

See what great love the Father has lavished on us, that we should be called children of God! NIV

I love the word lavish. It doesn’t mean He just kinda, sorta loves us. It means that He over the top, extravagantly, generously love us with extravagant abundance. His love isn’t based on how we behave or how we perform (thank goodness!). Our perfect Heavenly Father loves us- no matter what. His love is the same today and tomorrow- it is constant and infinite. He loves us on the days we mess up and on the days when we do things right. He adores us, truly. And there isn’t a single way we can earn that love and our status as His children. It’s just an undeserving gift He bestows on us- His immense love for us. The God of the universe loves you and He loves me. Right where we are right now. Deeply and passionately. He loves us 100%. The percent we receive is up to us.

My prayer today is that today you are reminded that despite all your fears, worries and imperfections, He loves you lavishly and calls you His beloved child. I pray that you are able to receive His love today- remembering that it's not based on what you do, but on who God says your are- His.

God's Plans vs My Plans

In case you need a reminder today......

God’s plans are:
-Greater than your fears
-Better than your dreams
-Good- even when they don’t feel good

Proverbs 19:21 says….

Many are the plans in a person's heart, but it is the LORD's purpose that prevails.

My prayer today is that you are reminded that when your plans fall apart (and they will), the Lord is there with you, working in ways you may not see or understand. That you hold tightly to Him and surrender your plans to Him- trusting in His greatness and His goodness. I pray that you hold fast to the truth that God’s purposes are perfect and so much greater than our own earthly plans. He has a purpose and it is good.

“When our plans are interrupted, His are not. His plans are proceeding exactly as scheduled, moving us always (including those minutes or hours or years which seem most useless or wasted or unendurable).” -Elisabeth Elliot

In the Absence of Truth, Lies Reign

Satan is a big, fat, stinky liar. He’s an evil impostor, a deceiver, a creep who lies to us in tons of sneaky ways to get us to believe his lies. To get us to sin. To convince us that the way of the world is better than the way of our Savior. To get us to believe that we deserve the things we want and the pleasures of this world. To cause us to feel that we are worthless and irredeemable and awful. And every single lie he convinces us to believe sets us up for failure. He does this is so many ways- and one that is terrifying to me is when he whispers to me.

My mama was a super sweet lady. I know it’s hard to believe but as a child I occasionally sometimes often misbehaved. And if my misbehavior happened somewhere away from home, my mama would never yell. Nope. What she would do was way, way scarier than yelling. I actually think I would have preferred yelling. What she would do was she would lean down and whisper quietly in my ear. And that whisper? Was terrifying and almost always caused me to do exactly what she said, immediately. Sometimes whispers are way scarier (and more effective) than loud voices. Especially when they are from upset mamas and from evil, stinky Satan.

John 10:10 says…

The thief comes only to steal and kill and destroy; I have come that they may have life, and have it to the full. NIV

Here are just a few of the MANY, MANY lies that Satan often tries to get me to believe:
1. I am alone. (lie)
2.I need to be perfect. (lie)
3.God is not good because if He was He would____________. (lie)
4.If _____ will happen, I’ll be happy. (lie)

It’s tempting for me to believe the lies of Satan because he’s crafty. The second I believe and start acting on those lies there are consequences and so I must constantly combat those lies with the TRUTH. The truth found only in God’s word.

When I start to hear Satan whispering in my ear, here are some of the truths I focus on to drown out his lies: :
1. Christ is with me always. I am never alone. Hebrews 13:5
2. God does not expect perfection from me, He expects obedience. John 14:23
3. God is good. Psalm 100:5 and Romans 8:28
4. I can be happy now and forever because Jesus has redeemed me. Isaiah 48:17

Sweet friends, we MUST replace Satan's lies with TRUTH. Every single thought. Every single emotion. Every single lie. We must take them captive to obey Christ. Because when we do, guess what? They die. In the absence of truth, lies reign. And when truth reigns, those lies die.


My prayer for us today is that when we are tempted to believe lies from Satan that we are immediately reminded of who we belong to- Christ. That when we start to hear Satan whispering in our ears, Jesus speaks words of truth over our hearts. That our first instinct when we hear those whispers would to be to run to God's word for reminders of who we are and who He is- loyal, trustworthy, our Abba father who loves us so and came to give us eternal life.

This Day is Yours Lord

This is my prayer today and everyday. 

You can print a copy of this prayer  HERE.