Today's encouragement comes from 2 Timothy 2:1, where we read these words:
"You therefore, my son, be strong in the grace that is in Christ Jesus."This is a lovely verse. In what are we to be "strong"? The "grace that is in Christ Jesus." What *is* this grace? It is Personal grace—that is more than sufficient to meet all of our specific, everyday and eternal needs. How are we to be "strong" in this grace? By faith in The Person of Christ Jesus. When we believe God, that He will answer our prayers which we offer through Jesus, and that He will help us in our needs—it greatly honors Him.
The thing for us to avoid, is the idea that we need to do something *before* we can be strong in Christ's grace. The truth is that this special strength comes to us as we appropriate to our hearts The Person of the Lord Jesus Himself by faith. Are we weak today? Let us put our faith in Christ.
[Puritan quote of the day: "For from our neglect of prayer comes that dead-ness of spirit, that worldly-mindedness and unaptness to pray, to hear the Word, and to keep the Sabbath.” —John Preston, in his sermon entitled, "The Saint's Daily Exercise"]
