Encouragement Study: Edition #3

Jeremiah 32:36-41

"You are saying about this city, 'By the sword, famine and plague it will be handed over to the king of Babylon'; but this is what the LORD, the God of Israel, says: I will surely gather them from all the lands where I banish them in my furious anger and great wrath; I will bring them back to this place and let them live in safety. They will be my people, and I will be their God. I will give them singleness of heart and action, so that they will always fear me for their own good and the good of their children after them. I will make an everlasting covenant with them: I will never stop doing good to them, and I will inspire them to fear me, so that they will never turn away from me. I will rejoice in doing them good and will assuredly plant them in this land with all my heart and soul.

-To encourage is to inspire. It can be to inspire someone to do something that will prosper them. And God will inspire his people to fear them. Children fear their parents. It is a respecting fear. My children don't fear me to the point of death... which I think it awesome. I don't want my son or daughter to see me and drop to there knees thinking that they are going to die. That is the fear I am supposed to have with my God. I am also to think of my God as a Father, like my dad in a sense. Still, a father inspires their children. They push them to be more than what they really are... and I say that as, if left to their own devices, they will spend the day in front of the TV, drinking too much soda, and wearing holy underwear. They inspire their children to do things that they don't want to do to achieve the things they've always dreamed about. That was a quote by Tom Landry (maybe not the exact words, but close enough). And God wants to inspire me, to fear, and to obedience. I say AMEN to that.