When you've given all that you feel you're capable of giving and you feel it's still not enough or not appreciated enough or the times you feel you're at the end of your rope and you need that extra push to put one foot in front of the other (and no amount of Red Bull or extra Joss can help), these lines from the greatest Book of all time help a great deal.
1 Timothy 6:11-16 (ESV)
"(11) But as for you, O man of God, flee these things. Pursue righteousness, godliness, faith, love, steadfastness, gentleness. (12) Fight the good fight of the faith. Take hold of the eternal life to which you were called and about which you made the good confession in the presence of many witnesses. (13) I charge you in the presence of God, who gives life to all things, and of Christ jesus, who in his testimony before Pontius Pilate made the good confession, (14) to keep the commandment unstained and free from reproach until the appearing of our Lord Jesus Christ, (15) which he will display at the proper time--he who is the blessed and only Sovereign, the King of kings and Lord of lords, (16) who alone has immortality, who dwells in unapproachable light, whom no one has seen or can see. To him be honor and eternal dominion. Amen."
And when the words of the world get you down, these verses from Psalm 56 (ESV) lift you up:
"(3) When I am afraid, I put my trust in you.
(4) In God, whose word I praise, in God I trust; I shall not be afraid.
What can flesh do to me?
(5) All day long they injure my cause; all their thoughts are against me
for evil.
(6) They stir up strife, they lurk; they watch my steps, as they have waited for my life. . .
(8) You have kept count of my tossings; put my tears in your bottle.
Are they not in your book?
(9) Then my enemies will turn back in the day when I call.
This I know, that God is for me.
(10) In God, whose word I praise, in the Lord, whose word I praise,
(11) in God I trust, I shall not be afraid.
What can man do to me?"
Indeed. What can man do to me?
Lord, thank you for the way you have kept me strong in the face of many things that would cause me weakness; for the way you have reminded me to just cling to Your Word, Your promise, Your truth. Thank You for the way you have kept my foot from slipping and made sure my steps (Ps. 37). Most of all, for the way you have shown your amazing love for me in the most concrete of ways.
