Isaiah 12:6 NLT 'Let all the people of Jerusalem shout his praise with joy! For great is the Holy One of Israel who lives among you.' I can’t think of many recent occasions when I have shouted, either from joy or anger. We used to live in the shadow...
1 Peter 1:8 NLT 'You love him even though you have never seen him. Though you do not see him now, you trust him; and you rejoice with a glorious, inexpressible joy.' Joy is something that impacts my senses. At the start of last autumn, I remember thr...
Ecclesiastes 9:7 NLT 'So go ahead. Eat your food with joy, and drink your wine with a happy heart, for God approves of this!' My favourite dictionary defines joy as “the emotion evoked by well-being, success, or good fortune or by the prospect of pos...
Luke 4:13 NLT 'When the devil had finished tempting Jesus, he left him until the next opportunity came.' Jesus has experienced three separate and acute temptations in the wilderness, and now the devil departs from him until a fresh opportunity will a...
Luke 4:3-4 NLT Then the devil said to him, “If you are the Son of God, tell this stone to become a loaf of bread.” But Jesus told him, “No! The Scriptures say, ‘People do not live by bread alone.’” One immediate challenge with persevering is that we...
Luke 4:1-2 NLT 'Then Jesus, full of the Holy Spirit, returned from the River Jordan. He was led by the Spirit in the wilderness, where he was tempted by the devil for forty days. Jesus ate nothing all that time and became very hungry.' Ash Wednesday...
Romans 5:3-4 NLT 'We can rejoice, too, when we run into problems and trials, for we know that they help us develop endurance. And endurance develops strength of character, and character strengthens our confident hope of salvation.' Shrove Tuesday or...
1 Corinthians 13:7 NLT Love never gives up, never loses faith, is always hopeful, and endures through every circumstance. Perseverance is characterised by the ability to achieve something despite difficulties and obstacles that stand in our way. It t...
Acts 4:32 NLT 'All the believers were united in heart and mind. And they felt that what they owned was not their own, so they shared everything they had.' Unity creates an atmosphere of trust and harmony. Within such an atmosphere, remarkable things...
Philippians 1:27 NLT Above all, you must live as citizens of heaven, conducting yourselves in a manner worthy of the Good News about Christ. Then, whether I come and see you again or only hear about you, I will know that you are standing together wit...
Romans 12:4-5 NLT Just as our bodies have many parts and each part has a special function, so it is with Christ’s body. We are many parts of one body, and we all belong to each other. Last summer I ran down the garden, stretched down and picked up a...
