2 THESSALONIANS 2:16-3:5

Brothers and sisters: May our Lord Jesus Christ himself and God our Father, who has loved us and given us everlasting encouragement and good hope through his grace, encourage your hearts and strengthen them in every good deed and word.

Finally, brothers and sisters, pray for us, so that the word of the Lord may speed forward and be glorified, as it did among you, and that we may be delivered from perverse and wicked people, for not all have faith.

But the Lord is faithful; he will strengthen you and guard you from the evil one. We are confident of you in the Lord that what we instruct you, you are doing and will continue to do. May the Lord direct your hearts to the love of God and to the endurance of Christ.

Backgrounder

How is your heart doing these days? Are you hopeful and upbeat, or, down and despairing? What goes on in your heart is where you find your deepest self. Reading your own heart you can become aware of who you truly are, how God made you to be just you. Your uniqueness is His gift to you.

But the human heart is deceptive. You may even be deceiving yourself. We are weighed down by sin, and sometimes emotionally fragile. Most of us probably hurt in ways that we have a hard time even admitting.

So, as in everything we do, we turn to Jesus. All of us, whether we have a deep faith or whether we are still learning to trust the Lord, need His encouragement.

Today, the Bible helps us to realize that our hearts, as fragile or as fickle as they may be, are loved by God. As we turn to Him, we know that is always faithful, he will strengthen us, and he will protect us from the evil one.

Jesus himself had a heart full of sorrow as he came to earth, and saw how we were hardened in sin. He called people to love and encourage each other, and he gave us the grace to do so. The encouragement he offers us renews us.

When our hearts are encouraged by Jesus, we can also encourage each other. We can spread the love.