Tag Archives: giving hope

August 9, 2023 · 5:46 AM

Giving Comfort

Not long after I started writing devotions, I had an idea to start an online support group. The plan was to write six papers detailing the journey I went through from divorce to bankruptcy to making it through. I found about ten people who were going through similar struggles and were willing to join an online community. My plan was to help them through their darkest time. However, a few weeks in, one of the participants said, “I’m glad you made it through your situation, but I’m more interested in how you did it than the story of what you went through. I need to know how to get through this.” It was great feedback, but I really didn’t have an answer at the time. I became discouraged with the idea and never moved forward with it. When I finally thought of practical things I did, I began to help people individually through their pain.

In 2 Corinthians 1:8, Paul shared a story of intense attacks against his ministry and the work he was trying to do. He said he was crushed and overwhelmed beyond his ability to endure. In fact, he thought he was going to die. It was during that time that he learned to rely on God’s strength, protection and provision instead of his own. That’s when God rescued him and he got the faith to trust God in the most difficult of circumstances. He wanted the church in Corinth and us to know his story so that we would be encouraged and learn to rely on God during our toughest times. He went on to say that what he learned we should do is to quit relying on our own strength and to seek people who will pray over us in those times and God will rescue us to.

In verse 4, he tells us, “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us” (NLT). The pain and struggles you go through have a multifaceted purpose. They’re to get you to rely and trust in God and they’re to get you to help others in their time of trouble. Remember that we overcome by the blood of the Lamb and our testimony. Don’t keep your story to yourself. People need to know that you made it through and how you made it through. Your testimony will bring comfort in the middle of pain. It will bring hope in a hopeless situation. It will provide direction when they can’t see a way out. Don’t allow the enemy to keep you quiet. People need the comfort and hope of your story. Their story may not be exactly identical to yours, but the pain and process are. Start looking for someone to share your story with. God is ready to use you to bring comfort.

Photo by Korney Violin on Unsplash

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September 9, 2020 · 5:56 AM

Preparing To Help Others

Several years ago I got a group of people together online who were going through difficult times. My plan was to meet with them each day for 30 days to provide them with encouragement from God’s Word as I shared the struggle I had made it through. I think we were about a week into it when one of the participants messaged me and said, “We get it that you made it through. What we need to know is how you made it through.” It was an aha moment for me as a writer, but as I went to answer her, I realized I hadn’t stopped to consider the steps I had taken to survive. The group quickly fizzled out because I didn’t have that answer. I wanted to help them, but just because I had walked where they were walking didn’t help them much. It gave them hope that they could survive, but still left them without a roadmap out.

There are several books of the Bible that share with us the struggles that David went through. He waited nearly 15 years from the time he was anointed king to becoming king, he ran from Saul, faced a coup from his son, sinned against God and so much more. His life was not perfect and he went through a lot. Reading about those things is inspiring, but it’s the Psalms that draw us in because they are the roadmap. They share how he survived those trials and consequences. He writes out where he put his hope, how he trusted God and that he needed a new heart. They speak to us more than the stories because as we go through difficulties, we need practical information of how to get through things.

2 Corinthians 1:4 says, “He helps us in all our troubles, so that we are able to help others who have all kinds of troubles, using the same help that we ourselves have received from God” (GNT). If you’ve made it through troubled times, think about how you made it through so you can help those who will go through something similar later. If you’re going through hard times now, keep a journal. It may be the key that helps someone else later. Your trials are not without purpose. Yes, they help purify you and strengthen you, but they’re also so that you can help someone else later. God helps us through difficult times, but there are practical things you’re doing or have done that other will need to know. Don’t get stuck without an answer like I was. Be prepared to help with a roadmap when the time comes.

Photo by Susan Yin on Unsplash

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July 27, 2018 · 5:52 AM

Encourage Someone

I was sharing my story with someone and they made a remark about the encouragement I received from the people around me during that time. I agreed and told him I wouldn’t be around if it hadn’t been for those people who showed up and helped me through those times. We never know how important it is to someone when we show up in their time of need or say the right words when they need to hear them most. Those things provide the fuel people need to keep going when they’re ready to give up.

If you Google The word “encourage”, it means, “to give support, confidence or hope to someone.” You and I are told many times to encourage other believers and people around us. God knows that each one of us need words of encouragement to help us get through life. It doesn’t take a lot of effort or time to give encouragement to someone, and it can make a world of difference. Look around you today and offer encouragement to someone even if you’re not sure they need it. Doing it will brighten someone’s day and show them God’s love.

Here are some Bible verses on encouraging others.

1. A soothing tongue [speaking words that build up and encourage] is a tree of life.

PROVERBS 15:4 AMP

2. And so encourage one another and help one another, just as you are now doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 GNT

3. The words of the godly encourage many, but fools are destroyed by their lack of common sense.

Proverbs 10:21 NLT

4. Our counsel is that you warn the freeloaders to get a move on. Gently encourage the stragglers, and reach out for the exhausted, pulling them to their feet. Be patient with each person, attentive to individual needs. And be careful that when you get on each other’s nerves you don’t snap at each other. Look for the best in each other, and always do your best to bring it out.

1 Thessalonians 5:13-15 MSG

5. Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love.

Hebrews 10:24 TPT

Photo by Tanja Heffner on Unsplash

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May 5, 2015 · 7:45 AM

What Pleases God

When I look at my social media feeds, I’m always intrigued by what goes viral. I think it gives a glimpse into who people are and what’s important to them. My favorite viral posts are those of someone doing good for someone else. Inevitably in the comment section (yes I read those too), someone will write something to the effect, “Why are we so intrigued by this? They did what we are supposed to do. This shouldn’t be viral. This should be common.” They have a point. Doing good for someone else without knowing you’re being seen or hoping to go viral is what we should be doing.

As Christians, we have a particular responsibility to help others in need. Throughout the Bible, God tells us to care for the poor, the weak and the defenseless. He asks us to show His love to those whom society deems the least worth it. Yet, in our day and age, someone who does something God commanded, goes viral because it isn’t commonplace in our society. We have stopped looking around because we are looking down at our phones. We have abandoned reality for a virtual world of fantasy. The by product of those exchanges is that we fail to fulfill our purpose in serving others. 

Hebrews 13:16 says, “Do not forget to do good and to help one another, because these are the  sacrifices that please God. (GNB)”  When we are so busy with work or so enthralled in our mobile devices that we forget to do good, we are too distracted to see those whom God places in our path. We have to find a way to lose the distractions that prevent us from seeing those to whom we could be doing good for. The Message Bible writes the end of this verse in very specific terms for us. It says, “God takes particular pleasure in acts of worship – a different kind of “sacrifice”- that take place in kitchen and workplace and on the streets.”

The opportunities to do good are all around us. If you’re not seeing them, you’re too distracted. If you’re seeing them and not doing anything about it, you’re neglecting to do the sacrifices that please God. There are people who come to your house who need a kind word, a smile or help. There are people beside you at work who are hurting and feel like no one cares. They desperately need a child of God to bring light into their darkness. There are people walking past you on the street, in the parking lot or in the store who could use a smile, a kind gesture or someone to lay it forward. That’s not someone else’s job. It yours if you call yourself a Christian.

We shouldn’t do things in order to be seen or to go viral. We should do it out of the love God has placed in our hearts for others. Jesus said in John 13:35, “If you have love for one another, then everyone will know that you are my disciples. (GNB)” That love is expressed in outward acts of kindness that others can see. It’s not done in order to be seen, but as an expression of love from the Father. So today, put away the things that are distracting you from seeing those who need help. Look to do good for someone. Smile and tell them, “God said He loves you.” God takes a particular pleasure in those acts of worship.

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