{"id":6374,"date":"2020-06-08T11:00:23","date_gmt":"2020-06-08T17:00:23","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=6374"},"modified":"2020-06-08T11:00:24","modified_gmt":"2020-06-08T17:00:24","slug":"a-challenge","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/?p=6374","title":{"rendered":"A Challenge"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Have you ever been discouraged? If you answered \u201cno,\u201d you\u2019re not being honest with yourself. This world has a way of discouraging us. It squashes our dreams, hopes and desires. It has a way of making us feel inadequate, unloved and unworthy. We can choose to be discouraged by the world or to be encouraged by God.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Take a look at these words from Jude. \u201cBut you, dear friends, build yourselves up in your most holy faith and pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep yourselves in God\u2019s love as you wait for the mercy of our Lord Jesus Christ to bring you eternal life.\u201d<\/em> (Jude 1:20-21<\/a> \u2013 NIV)<\/p>\n\n\n\n

These are important words to keep in mind and things we are to do. Build ourselves (and others) up. Keep the faith. Pray in the Holy Spirit. Keep ourselves in God’s love. Wait for the mercy.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Yes, we may be discouraged today, but there is hope. Hope in Jesus Christ to provide all that we need for this season. <\/p>\n\n\n\n

I would encourage you to put into practice the ideas Jude shared with the early Church. Today, maybe choose one of these areas to work on. Focus on Jesus and the love He has for you.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And here is the best of the best. When we keep ourselves in God\u2019s love, the world\u2019s discouragement isn\u2019t nearly as painful. The hope of eternal life to come delivers encouragement to our aching souls. Knowing God’s mercy is new every morning is uplifting.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Are you up to the challenge?<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Grace and peace be yours in abundance,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Donna<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Have you ever been discouraged? If you answered \u201cno,\u201d you\u2019re not being honest with yourself. This world has a way of discouraging us. It squashes our dreams, hopes and desires. It has a way of making us feel inadequate, unloved and unworthy. We can choose to be discouraged by the world or to be encouraged […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":5728,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_monsterinsights_skip_tracking":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_active":false,"_monsterinsights_sitenote_note":"","_monsterinsights_sitenote_category":0,"_s2mail":"","_uf_show_specific_survey":0,"_uf_disable_surveys":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[3762,24,15,3770,11,14],"tags":[6033,3090,1019,552,119,1892,6034,195],"class_list":["post-6374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-abide","category-asking-god","category-knowing-god","category-listen","category-loving-god","category-seeking-god","tag-build-up","tag-eternal-life","tag-faith","tag-gods-love","tag-holy-spirit","tag-jude-120-21","tag-mercy","tag-prayer"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=6374"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":6375,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/6374\/revisions\/6375"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/media\/5728"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=6374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=6374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/fullmeasureofjoy.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=6374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}