Welcome to Redeem the Commute. I’m Ryan, your host for this daily challenge. It’s Thursday, the day we try to apply and live out what we’ve learned this week from the Bible. This week we’ve been studying the story of Israel about to cross the Jordan River and enter the promised land.

God gave them a charge to be strong and courageous, with a condition that they love and obey his law, with the promise that he’d always be with them.

The most encouraging formula possible – God’s power with you, to live in God’s way, in the land God has promised you.

Our plans and God’s plans don’t always match. We want to be happy now; God wants to give us greater joy as we surrender our lives to his service. When we commit our lives to Christ, he uses us to accomplish his mission. God promises the same thing to us that he promised to Joshua: He’ll be with us all the time.

This means we can be encouraged – God will be with us, to accomplish his plans, and he asks us to show our thanks with obedience and living in his way.

This also means we can be generous with our encouragement.  We know the difference it’s made in our own lives, and can recognize how it will impact others.

I shared a story on Monday of someone who encouraged me out of the blue.  This has happened enough times that I’ve noticed a trend, and I try to live as an encourager myself.  Sometimes a name will simply pop into my head, or I’ll see them on Facebook’s newsfeed, or hear some news.  I fire off a quick email to let them know I’m thinking about them, and try to encourage them about something good I heard.

Some of them never get returned – busy people with trouble managing their email, but sometimes they need it most.  They’re overwhelmed.   I’d like to think that one positive email might have brightened their day, and let them know they weren’t alone.

That’s your challenge this week.  We’ve learned about God’s encouragement, and since we are trying to follow Jesus to become more and more like his father, let’s be encouragers ourselves.

Challenge: Encourage someone this week, and share with them about how you’ve seen God’s presence make a difference and encourage you in your life.