Tag Archives: sad

December 2, 2016 · 5:00 AM

Encouraging Words

If there’s one thing I’ve learned in life, it’s that we all need some encouragement in one way or another. Some of us need encouragement to get up and face the day. Others need encouragement to try one more time. Some receive love through words of encouragement. I also think we all need our faith encouraged at times because we all face difficult times that challenge what we believe. The great news is that all of us are capable of encouraging someone else.

Each of us can send a text, a meme, make a phone call, or talk to someone today to encourage them. It can be as simple as, “I’m praying for you.” It could be, “Smile. God loves you.” It doesn’t have to be complicated. There are a lot of people who struggle this time of year and they need your words of encouragement. Today, ask God to put people in your path and on your heart who needs words of encouragement, then speak to them what He puts on your heart. B an encourager today even if you need encouragement yourself. You’ll be surprised how it encourages you too.

Here are some Bible verses on encouragement.

1. But those who proclaim God’s message speak to people and give them help, encouragement, and comfort.
1 Corinthians 14:3 GNT

2. Don’t use foul or abusive language. Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them.
Ephesians 4:29 NLT

3. Therefore encourage (admonish, exhort) one another and edify (strengthen and build up) one another, just as you are doing.
1 Thessalonians 5:11 AMPC

4. The words of the godly encourage many, but fools are destroyed by their lack of common sense.
Proverbs 10:21 NLT

5. Everything written in the Scriptures was written to teach us, in order that we might have hope through the patience and encouragement which the Scriptures give us.
Romans 15:4 GNT

Loved Beyond Measure

I know that today is one of the hardest days of the year for a lot of people. It’s one more reminder that no one loves them. That they are single…. Still. It’s a difficult day emotionally. Other people are getting roses and gifts at work. They are talking about where they are going to eat tonight. They are showing off expensive gifts this morning. Then people look at those without that today, smile and say, “Don’t worry, you’ll find love someday. You just haven’t met the right one.”

Somehow words like that don’t help. They only drive the dagger deeper into the heart. Everyone has a need for love. Everyone has a need to be accepted by someone. It’s just the way God made us. Because He is love and we were made for Him, we were made with this cavern in us that can only be filled with love. Sure, being loved by a person is great and shows acceptance, but that alone doesn’t fill the cavern. God knew that we would seek out love and hoped that we would find Him.

Instead of finding Him, many find “love” in forms that are not of Him. They get desperate because their mind says, “I was supposed to be married by now” or “Im getting so old that there won’t be anyone left to love me.” I’ve been there. I’ll go a step further. My thoughts said, “All that’s left at this age are the crazies that no one wanted. I’ve got to choose from them. Oh wait, am I one of them?” The mind can play some pretty cruel tricks on you.

I can say that until you learn to love yourself, it will be hard for others to love you. The way you see yourself is the way you project yourself even though you try to mask it. If you don’t love yourself, your mind says, “No one will ever love you.” Then you fight off anyone that even tries. You find fault with them or reasons you shouldn’t be together and sabotage the relationship often unknowingly. It becomes a cycle and the norm.

The first step to loving yourself is realizing that you are already loved. You are loved beyond measure and beyond your own comprehension. I John 4:10 says, “This is real love – not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son as a sacrifice to take away our sins.” God loves you no matter what. You are His child and He gave His all, His very best, for you! Yes, I’m talking to you. You are valuable. You are worthy of love. You are constantly thought of. Psalm 139: 17-18 says, “How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand.”

Think about that. If every time God thought about you was counted, it would be more than the grains of sand in the Sahara. More than the grains of sand on every beach in the world combined. He’s obsessed with you! He loves you more than anyone including yourself can. Accept that love and know that you are worthy of love, even your own. A person’s love, while good to have, will not fill that cavern in you. It won’t even get you to Heaven, but God’s love will and does.

From Defeat to Victory

I used to worry a lot. There were things going on in my life that I couldn’t control. Things were happening faster than I could react to them. That worry lead to stress. That stress then lead to high blood pressure. My doctor put me on blood pressure meds, but they didn’t work. I’m thinking she probably should have put me on anxiety meds. I’m glad she didn’t because medicine wasn’t the answer I needed. My answer came through a friend who wasn’t scared to say something.

She asked me some questions that got me to thinking. She asked, “Are the things that are happening to you a surprise to God? Is God worried about them? Or is He still on His throne and in control?” Well I knew the answers to those questions, but didn’t want to say it. They did make me think about how I was looking at things. I had gotten so caught up in the problems and things popping up in my life that I allowed God to be taken out of the equation.

I don’t think I’m alone in this. I think many of us get caught up in our daily life and the problems that catch us unaware. We allow them to consume us to the point that it dominates how and what we think. When that happens to us, it’s easy to make our problems bigger than the God we serve. It doesn’t happen over night either. It comes from a constant bombardment of things that attack us. It’s a war technique that is happening to you.

Think back to Desert Storm. Our initial operations there had a code name of “Shock and Awe”. Most war plans, game plans and plans of attack begin with some type of shock and awe. They do it because if you aren’t expecting it, it will throw you off course, force you to make poor decisions and it gives the attacker the upper hand. It is designed to break your will and to keep you from fighting back. Submission is its goal.

I had submitted to the things that were coming at me faster than I could handle. I left the fundamentals that I had been taught. Once I did that, I began to be defeated. Defeat is the ultimate goal of our attacker. Once we are defeated, we are no longer a threat. Defeat breeds worry and depression which are cyclical and keep you from fighting. They take our mind out of the war that is going on and eventually remove the thought that God still cares and is our path to victory.

My friends questions caused me to put God back in the equation. When God is added in to the battles in your life, victories are multiplied. God cares deeply about where you are. He is not unaware of the things that are plaguing your mind right now. He is silently waiting for you to remember Him and to get back to the fundamentals which are praying and reading His Word. Romans 10:17 says that faith comes from hearing and hearing by the Word of God. If you need a faith boost this morning, get into God’s Word. Read it out loud. Speak the promises of God and reclaim your mind. Victory is at stake.

Tag Archives: sad

Encouraging Words

Loved Beyond Measure

From Defeat to Victory

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