Words Of Encouragement

(Overcoming Your Giants) - My beloved ??, When David defeated Goliath in 1 Samuel 17, he gave us a great example of what it means to have God on your side. You see, your problem may be bigger than you are, but it’s not bigger than God.

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(God Loves Us Unconditionally) - My beloved ??, If you love someone so much that you’re willing to die for them, that’s a special love. And that’s the kind of love Jesus has for you and me! That is why preaching the gospel and sharing the good news with people is the greatest most exciting privilege in the world, because I can look anybody, anywhere, anytime, at any place, right in the eye, never blink, never hesitate, never stammer, and never stutter, and say, “God loves you.” God loves you despite who you are or what you have done. God will take you where you are, accept you, pour out His love on you, change you, adopt you, form you, give you His grace, take your guilt, give you His salvation, and take your sin all because He loves you that much. Praise the Lord for His love! Romans 5:8

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(God Loves Us Uniquely) - My beloved ??, The reason we can know God loves us is because the cross demonstrates that God loves us uniquely. True love doesn’t just say, “I love you.” True love is always visibly expressed. It is always tangibly demonstrated. Jesus Christ, hanging on the cross is God’s love for everyone to see. The cross tells us loud and clear that God loves you like nobody else loves you. The love of a mother for a child, the love of a husband for a wife, or the love of a child for a parent doesn’t compare to the love that God has for us. There are broken-hearted young men and women around the world today who cry themselves to sleep because someone once said these words to them, “I don’t love you anymore.” God is the one being that can never say that and will never say it. The cross demonstrates that God loves us uniquely. But God demonstrates his own love for us in this: While we were still sinners, Christ died for us. – Romans 5:8

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(Loving People, Trusting God) - My beloved ??, Jesus loved people—we see that in His interaction with people, especially His disciples. He had great fellowship with them—traveled with them, ate with them, and taught them—but He did not trust Himself totally to them. Because He knew what was in human nature. That does not mean He didn’t trust them at all; He just didn’t open Himself up and give Himself to them in the same way He trusted God and opened Himself up to His heavenly Father. He didn’t expect them to be perfect toward Him and never disappoint Him. We can be thankful for the example of Jesus because He shows us how we should live. We should love people, and we can trust them, but never give them the trust that belongs to God. He is always trustworthy, and He always has your best interest at heart. John 2:24-25 (AMPC)

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(A Useful Vessel) - My beloved ??, The Bible refers to us as earthen vessels (See 2 Corinthians 4:7); we are made of clay (See Isaiah 64:8). God formed Adam out of the dirt (See Genesis 2:7), and King David said, “Remember Lord, that I am but dust” (See Psalm 103:14). When we fill ourselves with God’s Word, we become containers of His blessing, ready to be poured out for His use. God can even use cracked pots! We are all valuable to the Lord. We can offer His truth to people everywhere we go.

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(Anointed with the Oil of Joy) - My beloved ??, God wants us to love what He loves and hate what He hates. He loves righteousness (doing right) and He hates evil (doing wrong). We should feel the same way God does and make decisions that will please Him. We are faced with choices all the time. Every day we must decide whether we will do the right thing or the wrong thing when situations arise. We decide if we will walk through the narrow gate that leads to life or through the broad gate that leads to destruction (Matthew 7:13–14). Each of us must decide for ourselves and be careful not to take wrong advice from the ungodly. We will all stand before God eventually and give an account of our life (Romans 14:12), and the decisions we make now will impact how easy or difficult that day will be. We should think carefully about our decisions because wise people do now what they will be happy with later in life. A foolish person is one who does wrong things and hopes that they will avoid the consequences, but they don’t. God promises to give favor and joy to the person who loves righteousness and hates wickedness, and I pray that you and I will fit this description. Psalm 45:7 (NIV)

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(Develop an attitude of gratitude toward the people in your life.) My beloved ??, All of us know we need to be thankful. God tells us to do so, and we also know from our own experience that once we seriously start praising God, our burdens and our troubles seem to weigh less heavily on our shoulders.

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(Worry and Anxiety) - My beloved ??, I am sure none of us wants to worry or be anxious. We plan to stay peaceful, but then life happens. I am amazed at how many unexpected things can happen in one week. They are situations we don’t plan for and things that we don’t want to deal with, but they come, and we have no choice but to deal with them. God invites us to enter His rest through believing (Hebrews 4:3, 10). Each time a problem arises, we can worry and become anxious, or we can believe that God will help us deal with it. I believe that staying peaceful during life’s storms gives great glory to God and gives us an opportunity to grow in our faith. This doesn’t mean that I enjoy trouble, nor do I always react perfectly when it comes, but doing so is my goal. I encourage you to stay in God’s rest today and every day. If trouble comes, just remember that it won’t last forever and that God is with you to help you deal with it. Matthew 6:34 (AMPC)

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(Something Is Missing) - My beloved ??, We are created for the garden (see Genesis 2:7–8), but we live in the world! We are longing for heaven—our true home—and we will never feel 100 percent settled until we see Jesus and live in His presence. As long as we are in this world, it is like we are on a long trip, living in a motel and longing for home. We are created for perfection and yet we are currently assigned to being in a place where nothing and nobody, including us, is perfect. Since we are created for perfection, anytime we are confronted with imperfection, we sense a disappointment that I have learned is not wrong to feel. The more deeply we understand this, the more we can enjoy what we do have and the more we will be able to love people, even with their imperfections. I have found rest in realizing that what I feel and deal with every day is quite normal—at least it is normal for someone who is longing for home! Romans 8:23 (AMPC)

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(Roots and Fruits) - My beloved ??, Fruit bearing trees are known and identified by their fruit, and people are much the same way. If you could look at the roots of the life of a person who is emotionally unhealthy, you would see that they lead to things like rejection, abuse, guilt, jealousy, shame, and other negative thoughts and feelings. If you have recognized unhealthy attitudes in yourself, they are most likely the bitter fruit of some- thing rooted in your thinking. But I have good news: Your mind can be renewed by God’s Word (Romans 12:2). This does not happen immediately or even quickly. It may take a while, but it is possible with the help of the Holy Spirit, and it is worth the time it takes.

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(Following God’s Peace) - My beloved ??, People who do things they don't have peace about have miserable lives and don't succeed at anything. We must follow peace. If you lose your peace when you say something, God is speaking to you. Apologizing right then will save you a lot of trouble. You can say, "I am sorry I said that. I was wrong to say it; please forgive me." God wants to be involved in all of our decisions. One of the ways that He lets us know how He feels about what we are doing is by either giving peace as approval or withdrawing it as disapproval. If we don't have peace, we are not obeying God because we are to let the peace of God rule as an umpire in our hearts (see Colossians 3:15). Anytime we lose our peace, we must stop and be sensitive to what God is saying to us. Peace serves as a compass in our hearts, pointing us in the right direction. This is why God in the Bible says: Strive to live in peace with everybody and pursue that consecration and holiness without which no one will [ever] see the Lord (Hebrews 12:14 AMPC). Philippians 4:7 (AMPC)

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(Magnetic Love) - My beloved ??, The earliest Christians didn’t have buildings and met in homes. They had no access to the mass media of their day. They had little money and absolutely no political influence. The Gospel spread through ordinary people from diverse backgrounds with one thing in common – they had given their lives to Jesus. Jesus Himself tells us that it is love that makes us magnetic. He spoke of a different kind of love…a new kind of love that is so powerful it attracts even the hardest of hearts. This kind of love cannot be manufactured on our own. It is love that the Holy Spirit brings into a heart that has been made new. It is love that is reciprocal, not original, to our reborn souls. It is a love that is first received and then poured out for the sake of Christ. “We love because He first loved us.” - 1 John 4:19

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(Unfailing Love) - My beloved ??,As humans, we all struggle with the idea of love. What is love? Will it last? Most of our problems with love arise from looking at each other. People stop loving one another for just about any and every reason. Marriages break up because; “We just don’t love each other anymore.” Friends fall out and quit loving each other. Parents and children turn love into hate. Most human love is limited and conditional. I love you “if” and I’ll quit loving you “when.”

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(The Power of Trust) - My beloved ??, God is good, without respect to persons. In other words, He is good to all, all the time. His goodness radiates from Him.

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(High Praises of God) - My beloved ??, We should form a habit of thanking and praising God as soon as we wake up each morning. While we are still lying in bed, let’s give thanks and fill our minds with Scripture. Praise defeats the devil quicker than any other battle plan. Praise is an invisible garment that we put on, and it protects us from defeat and negativity in our minds. But it must be genuine, heartfelt praise, not just lip service or a method being tried to see if it works. We praise God for the promises in His Word and for His goodness. Worship is a battle position! As we worship God for Who He is and for His attributes, for His ability and might, we draw closer to Him, and the enemy is defeated.

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(The Bible Transforms Us) - My beloved ??, The reason we can believe the Bible is because it is personally transforming. I have never come across a book that has transformed so many people’s lives. Sure, you’ll hear of a book every now and then that is getting popular and helping people. But in a year or two, you stop hearing about that book. But the Bible is not that way. The words in Scripture have been impacting people’s lives for thousands of years. It’s never been forgotten. It’s never gone out of style. It’s never been proven wrong. Year after year, it continues to do transformative work in the lives of the people who read it. That should give us confidence and hope that we can take God at His Word because His Word is truth. Sanctify them by the truth; your word is truth. – John 17:17

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(A Case of the “Ifs”) - My beloved ??, Do you have a bad case of the “ifs”? It is a common misconception that if only we had this, that, or the other, we would find the happiness and fulfillment we so desperately desire. We find ourselves saying things like: If I didn’t have to work, if we had more money, if I had a bigger house, if the kids were grown, if I were married, if I weren’t married….  Stop thinking that you could be happy “if” your circumstances were different, and start being happy right now because God loves you and has already blessed you in many ways. Our unhappiness usually comes from within us and not from something around us. So I recommend that you take responsibility for your own joy and stop blaming the lack of it on anything or anyone. The people who are happy are the ones who decide to be happy. Colossians 3:2 (NIV)

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(Stop Waiting and start trying!) - My beloved ??, Many people are confused about what they are to do with their lives. They don’t know what God’s will is for them; they are without direction. If you are doing nothing with your life because you are not sure what to do, then I recommend that you pray and begin trying some things. It won’t take long before you will feel comfortable with something. It will be a perfect fit for you. Think of it this way: when you go out to buy a new outfit, you probably try on several things until you find what fits right, is comfortable, and looks good on you. Why not try the same thing with discovering your destiny? A confident person is not afraid to make mistakes, and if they do, they recover and press on. Philippians 1:6 (AMPC)

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(Church) - My beloved ??, This definition reflects the purpose of the Body of Christ, doesn’t it? The purpose of the Church is to reach people with the Gospel so that the Holy Spirit can draw them into a relationship with Jesus Christ. Two thousand years ago the earliest Church had a magnetic draw that was to this day unparalleled.  The same is true today. When we get right down to it, our witness is all we have to draw people to Christ. The Spirit of God still draws people to the Word of God. When we let our light shine, God can use our witness to do this incredible work of drawing lost souls to Himself. How are you being used? Acts 2:41

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(God Says, “I Will Be with You”) - My beloved ??, The presence of God in our lives helps us overcome fear. If we know by faith that God is with us, we can be grateful for His presence and we can take on any challenge with confidence and courage. We may not always feel God’s presence, but we can be thankful for His Word, remembering that He said He would never leave us or forsake us (see Hebrews 13:5). In the Bible, the basis for not fearing is simply this: God is with us. And if we know God’s character and nature, we know He is trustworthy. We do not have to know what He is going to do, when He is going to do it, or how He is going to do it. Simply knowing He is with us is more than enough. Joshua 1:5 (AMPC)

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