ENCOURAGEMENT FOR THE DAY

A Crown Of Loving-Kindness

Bless (affectionately, gratefully praise) the Lord, O my  soul, and forget not [one of] all His

benefits -- Who beautifies, dignifies, and crowns you  with loving-kindness and tender mercy.

(Psalm 103:2,4b - AMP)

The  Lord's loving-kindness and tender mercy are so awesome. In the early days of my  renewed Christian journey, so often after not being selected to serve the Lord  in a certain church task, I'd discover that my Lord's loving-kindness had  protected me from some unpleasant experience. Of course, that would be revealed  after a period of crushed zeal and disappointment. However, increasingly, these  crushing times taught me to seek and ask of the Lord how He wanted me to serve,  which always turned out to be much better suited to the stage of my development.  Jesus loves us to refer everything to Him, and whatever He desires for us is  always the most loving, kind, righteous, fair, and fruitful!
Yes, we live  and breathe in the Lord's perfect loving-kindness, which He manifests in His  multifaceted ways every moment of our lives. Therefore, we can in His name make  our best effort to share kindness and love with others, from the ample measure  He has bestowed on us.
There is plenty of gracelessness, impatience,  intolerance, peevishness, envy, bitterness, anger, and spite around, and it  takes no effort, courage, or strength of discipline to behave thus. Everyone can  do it. But this serves as a constant joy-drain on both recipients and  perpetrators of such conduct.
In contrast, every moment that we live  appreciating Jesus' loving-kindness and consideration, we grow more positive and  confident, which in turn enlarges within us His godly strength, joy, discipline,  and grace, to show loving-kindness and consideration to others. His "light brings every kind of goodness, right living, and  truth. Try to learn what pleases the Lord." (Ephesians 5:9-10  NCV)
We can be certain, beyond  doubt, that our God-given crown of loving-kindness and tender mercy is ever  noticed by its presence or its absence.
As always, our blessed reward is  more than superabundantly fair and just, and greatly encourages us to keep  giving as our Lord does! For as we give, so it is given back to us in very "good measure, pressed down, shaken together,  and running over ... For with the same measure that you use, it will be measured  back to you." (Luke 6:38 NKJV)

…..Rosemary Renninson, Victoria, Australian (rosemary396@dodo.com.au) by way of  "The Daily Encourager" (dlangerfeld@harrisburgbaptist.org) and “Christian Voices” (ChristianVoices@att.net)