O LORD, you have examined my heart
and know everything about me.
You know when I sit down or stand up.
You know my thoughts even when I’m far away.
You see me when I travel
and when I rest at home.
You know everything I do.
You know what I am going to say
even before I say it, LORD.
You go before me and follow me.
You place your hand of blessings on my head.
God has now revealed to us
his mysterious will regarding Christ—
which is to fulfill his own good plan.
And this is the plan:
At the right time he will bring everything together
under the authority of Christ—
everything in heaven and on earth.
Blessings of accepting God’s mysteries
But the Holy Spirit
produces this kind of fruit in our lives:
love, joy, peace, patience, kindness, goodness,
faithfulness, gentleness, and self-control…
But when the right time came,
God sent his Son,
born of a woman,
subject to the law.
God sent him to buy freedom for us…
My old self has been crucified with Christ.
It is no longer I who live,
but Christ lives in me.
So I live in this earthly body by trusting in the Son of God,
who loved me and gave himself for me.
…anyone who belongs to Christ has become a new person.
The old life is gone;
a new life has begun!
All of this is a gift from God,
who brought us back to himself through Christ.
We speak for Christ when we plead,
“Come back to God!”
For God made Christ,
who never sinned,
to be the offering for our sin,
so that we could be made right with God through Christ.
For we know that when this earthly tent we live in
is taken down
(that is, when we die and leave this earthly body),
we will have a house in heaven,
an eternal body made for us by God himself
and not by human hands.
…we want to put on our new bodies
so that these dying bodies will be swallowed up by life.
…we live by believing and not by seeing.
…never give up.
Though our bodies are dying,
our spirits are being renewed every day.
For our present troubles are small
and won’t last very long.
Yet they produce for us a glory
that vastly outweighs them and will last forever!
So don’t look at the troubles we can see now;
rather, we fix our gaze on things that cannot be seen.
For the things we see now will soon be gone,
but the things we cannot see will last forever.
…We were crushed and overwhelmed
beyond our ability to endure,
and we thought we would never live through it.
In fact, we expected to die.
But as a result,
we stopped relying on ourselves
and learned to rely only on God,
who raises the dead.
Be on guard.
Stand firm in the faith.
Be courageous.
Be strong.
And do everything with love.
