Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread.

Leslie Co. wrote today's reading, and it's titled, Hope in God.

Jeremy didn't realize what he was getting into when he arrived at the university for his three-year

course and asked for the cheapest dorm room available.

It was awful, he recounted. The room and its bathroom were terrible, but he had little money and

little choice. All I could do, he said, was think, I have a nice home to go back to in three years' time,

so I'll stick with this and make the most of

my time here. Jeremy's story mirrors the everyday challenges of living in an earthly tent,

a human body that will die, operating in a world that is passing away. Thus, we groan and are

burdened as we struggle to cope with the many difficulties life throws at us.

What keeps us going is the certain hope that one day will have an immortal resurrected body,

a heavenly dwelling, and be living in a world free of its present groaning and frustration.

This hope enables us to make the most of this present life

God has lovingly provided.

He'll also help us to use the resources and talents he's given us

so we can serve him and others.

And that's why, as 2 Corinthians 5-9 declares,

we make it our goal to please him,

whether we are at home in the body or away from it.

The scripture reading for today's devotional is 2 Corinthians chapter 5 verses 1 through 10.

For we know that if the earthly tent we live in is destroyed, we have a building

from God, an eternal house in heaven, not built by human hands. Meanwhile, we groan, longing to be

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