Don’t worry about anything;
instead, pray about everything.
Tell God what you need,
and thank him for all he has done.
Then you will experience God’s peace,
which exceeds anything we can understand.
His peace will guard your hearts and minds
as you live in Christ Jesus.
Then Christ will make his home in your hearts
as you trust in him.
Your roots will grow down into God’s love
and keep you strong.
And may you have the power to understand,
as all God’s people should,
how wide, how long, how high and how deep his love is.
…You will be my people,
and I will be your God.
I will cleanse you…
I will give you good crops…
I will send no more famines…
I will give you great harvests…
Then you will remember your past sins
and despise yourselves…
But remember,
says the Sovereign LORD,
I am not doing this because you deserve it.
For this is what the Sovereign LORD says:
I myself will search and find my sheep.
I will be like a shepherd looking for his scattered flock.
I will find my sheep and rescue them
from all the places where they were scattered
on that dark and cloudy day.
Together, we are his house,
built on the foundation of the apostles and the prophets.
And the cornerstone is Christ Jesus himself.
We are carefully joined together in him,
becoming a holy temple for the Lord.
When I think of all this,
I fall to my knees and pray to the Father,
the Creator of everything in heaven and on earth.
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources
he will empower you with inner strength
through his Spirit.
After this I saw a vast crowd,
too great to count,
from every nation and tribe and people and language,
standing in front of the throne and before the Lamb.
They were clothed in white robes
and held palm branches in their hands.
And they were shouting with a great roar,
“Salvation comes from our God who sits on the throne
and from the Lamb!”
No, despite all these things,
overwhelming victory is ours through Christ,
who loved us.
And we know that God causes everything
to work together for the good
of those who love God
and are called according to his purpose for them.
