“Or suppose a woman has ten silver coins and loses one.
Won’t she light a lamp and sweep the entire house
and search carefully until she finds it?
And when she finds it,
she will call in her friends and neighbors and say,
‘Rejoice with me because I have found my lost coin.’
In the same way,
there is joy in the presence of God’s angels
when even one sinner repents.”
For a child is born to us,
a son is given to us.
The government will rest on his shoulders.
And he will be called:
Wonderful Counselor,
Mighty God,
Everlasting Father,
Prince of Peace.
The hills of Israel
The people who walk in darkness
will see a great light.
for those who live in a land of deep darkness,
a light will shine.
Always be humble and gentle.
Be patient with each other,
making allowance for each other’s faults
because of your love.
And may you have the power to understand,
as all of God’s people should,
how wide, how long, how high,
and how deep his love is.
I pray that from his glorious, unlimited resources
he will empower you with inner strength through his Spirit.
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.
Because of Christ and our faith in him,
we can now come boldly and confidently
into God’s presence.
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.
God saved you by his grace when you believed.
and you can’t take credit for this;
it is a gift from God.
Salvation is not a reward for the good things we have done,
so none of us can boast about it.
For we are God’s masterpiece.
He has created us anew in Christ Jesus,
so we can do the good things he planned for us long ago.
I keep asking that the God of our Lord Jesus Christ,
the glorious Father,
may give you the Spirit of wisdom and revelation,
so that you may know him better.
I pray also that the eyes of your heart
may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope
to which he has called you,
the riches of his glorious inheritance in the saints,
and his incomparably great power for us who believe.
That power is like the working of his mighty strength,
which he exerted in Christ
when he raised him from the dead…
Praise be to the God and Father
of our Lord Jesus Christ,
who has blessed us in the heavenly realms
with every spiritual blessing in Christ.
