You’ve forgiven other people. Have you forgiven yourself?
Sometimes the person we need to show mercy to the most is the person we use to be. We do really well at showing mercy to others, but we are harsh, critical, and judgmental toward the person staring back at us in the mirror.
We replay the conversation we wish we could take back. We remember the decision we wish we had made differently. We think about the opportunity we missed, the relationship we damaged, or the mistake we made years ago, so we continue punishing ourselves for something we can’t change. The person we have the hardest time forgiving is the person we used to be.
The Bible encourages us to treat ourselves differently. Scripture reminds us that mercy isn’t something God wants us to give only to others. We are also recipients of his mercy.
Lamentations 3:22-23 says, “The faithful love of the LORD never ends! His mercies never cease. Great is his faithfulness; his mercies begin afresh each morning.”
Notice every morning brings fresh mercy, so yesterday’s failure doesn’t have to define today.
You can learn from your past without living in it.
You can acknowledge your mistakes without continually condemning yourself for them.
You can wish you had done things differently and still recognize that God isn’t finished with you.
Perhaps today you need to extend a little mercy to someone you haven’t thought about in a while. Perhaps you need to show yourself a little mercy today.
The person you were yesterday made mistakes. So did the person you were five years ago, but God’s mercy is greater than your worst moment.
If God is willing to meet you with fresh mercy this morning, perhaps it’s time for you to stop withholding mercy from yourself.
The devil doesn’t have to defeat you if he can convince you to stop fighting. Don’t let the enemy push you around. Fight back.
James gives us some powerful advice: “Resist the devil and he will flee from you” (James 4:7).
Notice the word resist. James doesn’t tell us to ignore the devil or surrender when temptation comes. He tells us to stand our ground.
That doesn’t mean Satan won’t fight back. He will. He will keep looking for opportunities to tempt, discourage, distract, and deceive us. But with the Lord’s help, we don’t have to give in.
One of our greatest weapons is Scripture.
Jesus showed us exactly how powerful God’s Word can be. While Jesus was in the wilderness, Satan tempted Him repeatedly (Matthew 4). Each time, Jesus responded by quoting Scripture. He didn’t debate Satan. He didn’t negotiate with him. He answered temptation with the truth of God’s Word.
Eventually, Satan left.
The same enemy who tempted Jesus will try to tempt us. He may keep coming back, trying a different approach or catching us at a moment of weakness. But we can keep resisting. We can keep standing on God’s truth. We can keep answering the enemy’s lies with Scripture.
Keep resisting, keep trusting, and keep standing on God’s Word.
The enemy may keep coming, but when we stand with the Lord, we don’t have to stand alone.
We all have struggles. Some are struggles we openly talk about. Others are battles we quietly carry, hoping no one notices. Some challenges are temporary, while others seem to follow us for years.
That’s why we find such encouragement in Paul’s words in 2 Corinthians 12:9:
“Each time he said, ‘My grace is all you need. My power works best in weakness.’ So now I am glad to boast about my weaknesses, so that the power of Christ can work through me.”
Paul understood something we sometimes forget: God doesn’t ask us to be strong enough on our own. His grace is enough.
You may still be tempted by that past addiction today, but God’s grace is sufficient to help you overcome the temptation.
You may be struggling with stress and anxiety today, but God’s grace is sufficient to help you get through the day.
You may be facing health challenges that feel daunting and uncertain, but God’s grace is sufficient to give you strength for the day.
You may be dealing with financial pressure, relationship difficulties, grief, loneliness, or a mistake from your past that you can’t seem to forget. Whatever challenge you are facing today, God’s grace is sufficient.
That doesn’t mean the struggle will immediately disappear. It doesn’t mean every problem will be resolved today. It doesn’t mean you shouldn’t seek help from others. It means you don’t have to face the struggle alone.
God’s grace meets us in our weakness. His power works through the places where we feel most inadequate. What we see as weakness can become an opportunity for God to demonstrate his strength.
Don’t convince yourself that you have to have everything figured out before you come to him. Bring him your weakness. Bring him your fears. Bring him your failures. Bring him the struggle you’ve been carrying quietly. His grace is enough. Whatever you face today, remember this simple truth: You may not have enough strength for everything ahead, but God’s grace is all you need.
Pip: Get Encouraged lives up to its name this week — Chris Miller has been writing about the kind of love that doesn't check your track record before deciding to show up.
Mara: That's the thread running through everything here — God's unchanging love, what it means to trust when plans fall apart, and how we understand our own worth when the world keeps offering a different verdict.
Pip: Let's start with the love that, apparently, has no off switch.
God's Love Doesn't Have an Off Switch
Mara: The question underneath these posts is a simple one: can God's love actually be counted on when everything else has shifted or broken down?
Pip: The post "God's Everlasting Love: Unfailing Support in Turbulent Times" goes straight at that, and the framing is direct: "His love isn't swayed by our actions or decisions. It isn't conditional. The Lord's love is everlasting."
Mara: So the upshot is that this isn't love that responds to your performance. It was there before you were born, it's here today, and the post says plainly it will not stop.
Pip: Which matters most when you feel furthest away — the post makes that point too. Your feelings about God don't change his feelings about you.
Mara: "Even Now: Embracing God's Love in Difficult Moments" picks that up from Joel 2, where God's people are in genuine calamity, and the message isn't wait until you've cleaned things up. It's return now, as you are.
Pip: Even now is doing a lot of heavy lifting as a phrase. Two words that apparently cover every variety of mess a person can make.
Mara: And the character description from Joel grounds why that's possible — gracious, compassionate, slow to anger, abounding in love. That's not a God waiting to catch you failing.
Pip: Which sets up the harder question — if the love is that steady, what do we do when our own plans aren't?
When Your Plans Aren't Yours to Control
Mara: Both posts here sit with the discomfort of uncertainty — not trying to dissolve it, but asking what it looks like to trust through it.
Pip: "Weathering Life's Ups and Downs with God" opens with a walk to the store that turns into a downpour, and the image earns its keep: "The Lord watches over you — the Lord is your shade at your right hand; the sun will not harm you by day, nor the moon by night."
Mara: What that gets the reader is a God who isn't only present in the calm. The storm doesn't signal abandonment — the faithfulness is the constant, not the weather.
Pip: "Trusting God When Plans Change" takes the same idea and moves it from weather to the plans we make and lose — weeks, years, carefully arranged details that don't unfold the way we imagined.
Mara: And the Proverbs anchor there is honest about what trust actually requires — not leaning on your own understanding, which is genuinely hard when you can't see why the disruption happened.
Pip: If the love is unbreakable and the presence is constant, the next question is what that says about the person being loved.
Priceless: What God's Love Says About Your Worth
Mara: This is where the posts push hardest — not just that God loves you, but what that love implies about your value, especially when circumstances or other voices say otherwise.
Pip: "God's Priceless Love: The Value of Your Life" makes the argument through price tags, which is either inspired or very on-brand for a world that shops online at midnight.
Mara: It works, though. The post reads: "For God so loved the world that he gave his one and only Son…" — and then asks what that price, freely paid, says about the one being purchased for.
Pip: The answer the post lands on is that the world calls you not enough; God calls you priceless. Those are not compatible verdicts, and you have to pick one to live from.
Mara: "You Are a Masterpiece: Understanding Your Worth" comes at the same question from creation rather than redemption — every detail of who you are was intentional, not accidental, not generic.
Pip: And "Understanding Your Value Beyond Circumstances" is the one that holds when the first two feel abstract — because Romans 8 is not a feeling, it's a list of everything that cannot separate you from God's love.
Mara: Neither death nor life, neither present nor future, nothing in all creation. The post's point is that circumstances change your feelings about your worth, but they don't change the actual fact of it.
Pip: Feeling forgotten and being forgotten are not the same thing. That's a distinction worth keeping somewhere close.
Mara: The thread across all of it is consistency — love that doesn't shift, presence that doesn't leave, worth that doesn't depend on the season you're in.
Pip: Which is either the most comforting thing imaginable or the hardest to actually believe on a difficult Tuesday. More of both next time.
Our world is full of blame. We point fingers, assign fault, and look for someone to hold responsible. Mercy, it seems, can be in short supply. What if there were a better way?
What if…
Instead of being quick to judge, we were quick to understand?
Instead of condemning, we forgave?
Instead of looking for reasons to withhold grace, we looked for opportunities to extend it?
Jesus gives us that challenge in Luke 6:36–38:
“You must be compassionate just as your Father is compassionate. Do not judge others, and you will not be judged. Do not condemn others, or it will all come back against you. Forgive others, and you will be forgiven. Give, and you will receive.”
Jesus goes on to describe our giving as something that returns to us “pressed down, shaken together to make room for more, running over.”
While these words can speak to many areas of life, the immediate context is mercy, forgiveness, and how we treat others. Jesus is calling us to reflect the character of our heavenly Father.
God has shown us extraordinary mercy. He doesn’t treat us according to our failures, and he doesn’t withhold compassion when we need it most. As people who have received mercy, we are called to become people who give mercy.
This doesn’t mean ignoring wrongdoing or pretending hurt doesn’t matter. Mercy doesn’t erase accountability. It simply refuses to let blame, anger, or condemnation have the final word.
Someone may disappoint you today. Someone may say something hurtful. Someone may make a mistake that affects you.
You have a choice in how you respond.
You can add more blame to an already divided world, or you can add a little more mercy.
Accept Jesus’ challenge today: be merciful, and you may discover the world around you changes when you show a little more mercy.
When life is at its worst, we may assume God wants nothing to do with us, but the Bible reminds us that is not true. Sometimes, that is exactly when God reminds us, “Even now… return to me.”
In Joel 2, we find God’s people going through a rocky time. There was calamity, war, difficulty, and divisiveness. Yet amid all that was happening, the Lord sends a powerful message of encouragement.
Joel 2:12–13 says:
“Even now,” declares the LORD, “return to me with all your heart, with fasting and weeping and mourning.” Rend your heart and not your garments. Return to the LORD your God, for he is gracious and compassionate, slow to anger and abounding in love, and he relents from sending calamity.
Notice those two words:
Even now.
Even now, though you have made mistakes.
Even now, though your decisions have left you in a whirlwind.
Even now, though you feel like you have messed up horribly.
Even now, return to me.
What an incredible invitation.
We can return because of who God is. Joel reminds us of the Lord’s character by the words of Exodus 34:6:
“The LORD, the LORD, the compassionate and gracious God, slow to anger, abounding in love and faithfulness.”
God is gracious. He is compassionate. He is slow to anger. He is abounding in love. That means our failures don’t have to be the end of our story.
Maybe life feels rocky today. Maybe you’re dealing with the consequences of decisions you wish you could undo. Maybe you’re carrying regret, disappointment, or shame.
Remember the Lord’s encouragement:
Even now.
Even now, you can return to Him.
He is still gracious. He is still compassionate. He is still abounding in love. And He is still calling you home.
Please share this with a friend who may need this reminder today.
Sometimes the hardest part of making plans is realizing they were never entirely ours to control.
We make plans for the day ahead, week ahead, and even years ahead. We carefully arrange the details and imagine how everything will unfold, but when life takes an unexpected turn and our plans begin to change, the uncertainty can bring a great deal of stress. In these moments, Scripture reminds us that even when our plans change, God’s direction does not.
Proverbs 3:5–6 tells us, “Don’t lean on your own understanding, but trust in the Lord and he will make your paths straight.”
We may not understand why our plans changed, but we can trust the one who sees what we cannot. Sometimes God allows our plans to change because he sees something we cannot see. What feels like a disruption to us may be part of a direction he is leading us toward.
So, when your plans change, don’t assume everything is falling apart. Remember who is still in control.
We may not know what tomorrow holds, but we know the one who holds tomorrow. And if we can trust him with our future, we can trust him with today.
People can change. Relationships can change. Even the way someone feels about us can change. But there is one thing we never have to wonder about: God’s love.
Everlasting. Unfailing. Both are powerful words, and the Lord uses both to describe himself in Jeremiah. Both carry the idea of something that never stops and is always there.
Amid the chaos and mistakes of this world, the Lord’s love is everlasting. His kindness is unfailing. Others may walk away. They may say hurtful or unkind things, but the Lord remains beside us. He isn’t going anywhere.
His love isn’t swayed by our actions or decisions. It isn’t conditional. The Lord’s love is everlasting.
He loved you before you were born. He loves you today. And He will not stop loving you.
You may feel very distant from the Lord today. You may even struggle to feel love toward him. But your feelings don’t change his feelings toward you. His love remains.
Why? Because you are priceless to him.
Dwell on that truth today: God’s love for you is everlasting. No matter what this day brings, you can face it knowing his love will never run out.
How does knowing God’s love is everlasting help you face today?
Our circumstances have a way of making us question our value. When life is going well, it is easy to feel confident. We feel successful, useful, and secure, but those feelings quickly disappear when things fall apart. A difficult season, painful failure, financial struggle, or an uncertain future can cause us to wonder if we still matter, but our circumstances do not determine our value.
Paul gives us a powerful reminder in Romans 8:38–39:
“For I am convinced that neither death nor life, neither angels nor demons, neither the present nor the future, nor any powers, neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
Think about the certainty behind those words. Paul wasn’t saying God’s love would remain as long as life went according to plan. He wasn’t saying God’s love would remain as long as we succeeded or avoided failure.
He was saying nothing can separate us from God’s love.
Not our circumstances.
Not our failures.
Not our fears.
Not our losses.
Not even our uncertainty about what tomorrow may bring.
There will be seasons when we feel forgotten. There will be moments when our circumstances make us wonder where God is. We may look at our lives and struggle to see our own worth, but remember…
Feeling forgotten doesn’t mean we have been forgotten.
Feeling alone doesn’t mean we have been abandoned.
Facing hardship doesn’t mean we have somehow become less valuable to God.
Our value isn’t determined by the size of our bank account, the success of our career, the number of people who recognize us, or how well everything is going. Our value is rooted in something far more secure: God’s unbreakable love.
You see, circumstances change. God’s love doesn’t. Yesterday may have been difficult. Today may be uncertain. Tomorrow may bring challenges we cannot yet see. But through every season, one thing remains true: God loves us, and we are priceless.
So when life makes you question your value, remember Romans 8. Nothing in all creation can separate you from the love of God. Your circumstances may change, but your value in God’s eyes never does. You will always remain priceless!
Get Encouraged 