You Can Do It!

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. The devotional for today was written by Marvin Williams, and he titled it, You Can Do It.

Encouragement is like oxygen, we can't live without it. This was true for nine-year-old James Savage. The boy swam more than two miles from the San Francisco shoreline, to Alcatraz Island and back, breaking the record for the youngest person to accomplish the feat.

But 30 minutes into the swim, the choppy, frigid waters made James want to quit. However, a fleet of paddlers called out, You Can Do It. The words gave him the boost he needed to finish his goal. James was able to continue their journey. After the apostles preached the gospel in the city of Derby in Acts 14, they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith. They helped the believers to remain firm in their faith in Jesus. Troubles had weakened them, but words of encouragement strengthened their resolve to live for Christ. In God's strength, they realized they could keep pressing on.

Finally, Paul and Barnabas helped them understand that they would go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God. Living for Jesus can be challenging, and we're sometimes tempted to give up. Fortunately, Jesus and fellow believers in him can provide the encouragement we need to press on.

With him, we can do it. Now let's find strength from God's word to press on. Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is taken from Acts chapter 14, verses 21 through 28. They preached the gospel in that city and won a large number of disciples. Then they returned to Lystra, Iconium, and Antioch, strengthening the disciples and encouraging them to remain true to the faith.

We must go through many hardships to enter the kingdom of God, they said. Paul and Barnabas appointed elders for them in each church and, with prayer and fasting, committed them to the Lord in whom they had put their trust. After going through Pisidia, they came into Pamphylia, and when they had preached the word in Perga, they went down to Italia. From Italia, they sailed back to Antioch, where they had been committed to the grace of God for the work they had now completed. On arriving there, they gathered the church together and reported all that God had done through them and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.

And they stayed there a long time with the disciples. Now let's pray. Jesus, thank you for how you use people in our lives to encourage us and strengthen us when we are discouraged and want to give up. When we're struggling and feel like we can't go on, would you please send people to walk alongside us and give us what we need to carry on. Thank you, Lord. It's in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen.