WORDS OF ENCOURAGEMENT

Words of encouragement taken straight from Scripture. They are from Romans 8:35-39 (NIV):

Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall trouble or hardship or persecution or famine or nakedness or danger or sword? As it is written: ‘For your sake we face death all day long; we are considered as sheep to be slaughtered.’ No, in all these things we are more than conquerors through him who loves us. For i am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.

And from 1 Peter 4:8 (NIV):

Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.

DEEP WATERS

Jesus calls to us and says "Follow me..." There are many ways one can follow Christ; but the only way to be effective is to surrender completely. This sounds easy but most of the time its not. It's hard. A ruler asked Jesus what he must do to have eternal life. He told him to obey the Law of Moses, the ruler said he already does this. Then Jesus told the ruler he had one last thing he had to do; he had to sell all his possessions and give to the poor. The ruler could not do this. Complete surrender, no less is what Christ wants. Can you?
Jesus told the ones following him that "that no one can come to me unless the Father has enabled them." And many of his followers left him. Complete surrender, no less is what Christ wants. Can you?
Jesus borrowed a boat from a fisherman and sat in it as he spoke to the crowds. When he finished talking to them, Christ turned to the fisherman and said, "Put out into the deep water, and let down the nets for a catch." This made no sense to the man called Simon. He and his partners had fished there all night and not a single fish. The sun was high, this was not the time of day to go fishing. But yet, Simon answered Jesus, "...But because you say so, I will let down the nets?" Complete surrender, no less is what Christ wants. Can you?
This same man, Simon Peter, later stepped out of the boat and walked on water until he focused on the world and not Jesus. Complete surrender, no less is what Christ wants. Can you? Later this same Peter denied knowing Christ three times and yet this is the man Jesus chose to build his church. Yes, complete surrender is what Christ wants but he knows we are human. We turn our focus from Jesus to  enticements of this world and he forgives. He picks us up, dusts us off and asks us for complete surrender one more time. Can you?