By Allen J. Huth, President of the Ezra Project |

How is life going for you? Do you need instruction, endurance, and encouragement from time to time? I encourage you to consider some thoughts from the Bible, the Book of Romans, chapter 15.

Verse 4 says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

These blogs are brought to you by the Ezra Project which was started in 2002 with one purpose, to connect God’s people to God’s Word. It is my sincere belief this is one of the greatest needs in the Christian church today, for Christians to come back to the daily habit of being in the Scriptures. This verse reminds us why. It says, “…whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction…and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Living in a secular world today, we need Godly instruction. And where do we get it? We get it in the Scriptures.

We also need encouragement. And we need hope. This verse tells us we also get that in the Scriptures, but look at that little phrase in the middle. It says, and “…that through endurance…”,which means we must keep on, we must stay in the Scriptures, we must keep going. We need to make it a habit to stay in God’s Word on a daily basis.

That is my encouragement to you. Endure. Stay in the Scriptures. “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.” Then verse 13 says, “May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, so that by the power of the Holy Spirit you may abound in hope.”  If you need some hope today, find it in the Word of God. And when you do, you will experience joy and peace in believing and have the power of the Holy Spirit within you.

Lord, we thank You so much for Your Word. We thank You it gives us instruction, it gives us encouragement, and it gives us hope. Holy Spirit we ask You to keep us in Your Word because we need instruction, we need encouragement, and we need hope. As we stay in Your Word, Holy Spirit grant us Your peace and Your joy. In the name of Jesus, amen.