Category Archives: Encouragement

Jan4

Better Than a New Year’s Resolution

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At the start of this new year, the quote above by Britain’s King George seems so appropriate, even though he spoke it to his “embattled people” at the beginning of World War II.

It reminds me about today’s “embattled people” around the world who are basically fighting a World War against an invisible enemy ~ Covid, along with many who are facing other unknowns and uncertainties in life.

Thankfully, as we stand at the gate of this new year, ready to move forward into the “unknown,” the wise words of King George still hold true today, and they are far better than any New Year’s Resolution we could declare: “Put your hand into the hand of God. That shall be to you better than any light, safer than a known way.”

  • “By your words I can see where I’m going; they throw a beam of light on my dark path.” Psalm 119:105 MSG
  • “Trust in the Lord with all your heart, lean not to your own understanding. In all your ways acknowledge Him, and He will direct your path.” Proverbs 4: 5 – 6 NIV
  • “And your ears shall hear a word behind you, saying, “This is the way, walk in it,” when you turn to the right or when you turn to the left.” Isaiah 30:21 ESV
  • “Call to me and I will answer you, and will tell you great and hidden things that you have not known.” Jeremiah 33:3 ESV
Apr7

Be Faith-full Instead of Fear-full

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“Surrender your anxiety!

Be silent and stop striving and you will see that I am God.

I am the God above all the nations,

and I will be exalted throughout the earth.”

Psalm 46:10 TPT

 

The COVID19 shutdown throughout the world has forced us to shelter in place and practice social distancing. For many of us, this is painfully difficult because we are accustomed to a much busier pace of life. We aren’t used to this much time alone and being isolated from our friends, family and co-workers.

Listening to the news – especially while we are alone –  brings a great deal of anxiety and fear. But Psalm 46:10 tells us to surrender our anxiety. Listening to God and acknowledging Him in these quiet moments can calm our anxiety and nullify our fear.

The passage also tells us to be silent and stop striving.  This is one time in the entire history of the world that most people have been forced to be still and cease our normal activities. Use this time to read God’s word and meditate on His promises, instead of marinating in 24/7 news reports, emails and social media posts.

While we have this “free time,” let’s get outside and take in the sights, sounds, and fragrances of God’s creation. There’s no better place to see God than when we view the works His hands have made.

During these days of uncertainty, our anxiety will melt away when we turn it over (surrender it) to God and focus our thoughts on Him, instead of on our distress.

Be Faith-full and not Fear-full. 

 

 

Mar25

Our Global Reboot

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“Come away by yourselves to a || SECLUDED|| place and rest a little while” ~ Love, Jesus (Mark 6:31)

Perhaps God is using this world-wide pandemic for a global #reboot. People all over the earth who were ‘continually coming and going’ have halted their busy-ness and find themselves in a ‘secluded place.’ In the stillness of these moments, let’s take time to re-evaluate our priorities and realize what is truly important.

Over the last few weeks, we have had a front row seat to witness healthcare workers, National leaders, state leaders, local leaders, truckers, grocery workers, business leaders, ministers, athletes, celebrities and ordinary citizens come together like never before in history to work for a common goal. We are witnessing God’s command to “love your neighbor as yourself” in action!

When this #pandemic storm passes, let’s never go back to our “old normal.” Let’s use this experience with #covid_19 for a time to reset to a new normal where we eliminate the clutter in our schedules and embrace God’s command to love our neighbors.

“And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength.’ The second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ No other commandment is greater than these.” Mark 12: 30 – 31

“We know that God makes all things work together for the good of those who love Him and are chosen to be a part of His plan.” Romans 8:28

 

Mar23

Pray with Your Eyes on God – Not Your Difficulties

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“Then Peter called to him: ‘Sir, if it is really you, tell me to come over to you, walking on the water.’ ‘All right,’ the Lord said, ‘come along!’ So Peter went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. But when he looked around at the high waves, he was terrified and began to sink. ‘Save me, Lord!’ he shouted.”

Matthew 14:28 – 30 TLB

We may not be called to walk on water, but we do walk through periods of tumultuous circumstances in life. Right now our world is battling the pandemic virus COVID-19, and we are being tossed about in uncharted waters of a global shutdown. Every time we turn on the television or scroll through social media, we are inundated with a flood of bad news. If we focus on the swirling waves of difficulties surrounding us, we can easily feel like we are being swallowed up by the surge of life’s problems.

Peter experienced a rather unusual example of God’s power when he went over the side of the boat and walked on the water toward Jesus. His faith in Jesus gave him the courage to throw his leg over the side of the boat and step out into the stormy sea.  However, his faith wavered when he realized what he was doing. Once he took his eyes off Jesus and focused on the crushing waves around him, he began to sink.

Like Peter, we often start out with great intentions. We may be “prayed up” and filled with holy confidence before we begin to face the day. But once we wade into the undulating sea of life, our faith begins to falter, and we sink in despair. We feel ill-equipped to navigate the storms that batter us. Yet this doesn’t mean that we have failed. When Peter’s faith faltered, he immediately reached out to Jesus. In his time of greatest fear, he called on his Savior to rescue him.

When you are afraid of the troubles that swirl around you, keep your eyes on Jesus’ power rather than your own inadequacies. Call out to Him for help, and He will rescue you from the stormy seas.

“We have to pray with our eyes on God ~ not on the difficulties.” ~ Oswald Chambers

“Immediately Jesus reached out his hand and caught him. “You of little faith,” he said “why did you doubt?” And when they climbed into the boat, the wind died down. Then those who were in the boat worshiped him, saying, “truly you are the Son of God.”

Matthew 14:31-33

Mar21

Every Storm Runs Out of Rain

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God is the ultimate // S t o r m  W h i s p e r e r ! //

He’s still in The business of calming storms — even pandemic life storms. When you feel like your courage is melting in the face of these desperate circumstances, call on the One who can hush the towering waves of panic and turn them into peace. 🌊 🌊🙏🏻☝🏻✌🏻🙌🏼

“So they cried out to the Lord in their distress, and God brought them out safe from their desperate circumstances. God quieted the storm to a whisper; the sea’s waves were hushed. So they rejoiced because the waves had calmed down; then God led them to the harbor they were hoping for.”

Psalm 107: 28 – 30 (CEB)

Mar18

Choose Faith Over Fear

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Get vaccinated with a dose of Faith.

Read Psalm 91 aloud (below), and let the power of His words melt away your anxiety and fear. As you read the psalm, you can turn it into a powerful prayer to the Lord in behalf of you and your loved ones. God is greater than the hardships we face, and no problem is too great for God…not even COVID-19!

While He has us in a world-wide Holy Time-Out, you can replace panic with peace by spending time feasting on the soul food of His Good News, not the constant social feed of bad news.

God is teaching us to trust in HIM — Not the economy, not the stock market, not your job or your bank account.

Put your faith in the One who has overcome the world and rest in the shadow of His wings.

Choose Faith over Fear!

Psalm 91 ~

Whoever rests in the shadow of the Most High God
will be kept safe by the Mighty One.
 I will say about the Lord,
“He is my place of safety.
He is like a fort to me.
He is my God. I trust in him.”

He will certainly save you from hidden traps
    and from deadly sickness.
He will cover you with his wings.
Under the feathers of his wings you will find safety.
He is faithful. He will keep you safe like a shield or a tower.
You won’t have to be afraid of the terrors that come during the night.
You won’t have to fear the arrows that come at you during the day.
You won’t have to be afraid of the sickness that attacks in the darkness.
    You won’t have to fear the plague that destroys at noon.
A thousand may fall dead at your side.
Ten thousand may fall near your right hand.
But no harm will come to you.
You will see with your own eyes
how God punishes sinful people.

Suppose you say, “The Lord is the one who keeps me safe.”
Suppose you let the Most High God be like a home to you.
 Then no harm will come to you.
No terrible plague will come near your tent.
The Lord will command his angels
to take good care of you.
They will lift you up in their hands.
Then you won’t trip over a stone.
You will walk on lions and cobras.
You will crush mighty lions and poisonous snakes.

The Lord says, “I will save the one who loves me.
I will keep him safe, because he trusts in me.
 He will call out to me, and I will answer him.
I will be with him in times of trouble.
I will save him and honor him.
 I will give him a long and full life.
I will save him.”

 

 

 

Jan31

The Sunrise in Your Soul

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Through the heartfelt mercies of our God, God’s Sunrise will break in upon us, shining on those in the darkness, those living in the shadow of death, then showing us the way, one foot at a time, down the path of Peace.

Luke 1:78 – 79

Watching a sunrise is one of the most peaceful experiences on earth. As the newborn day peeks out of its cradle, an ever-changing palette of soft pastels paints the sky ‘s fresh canvas. While fringes of the sun’s light become more visible, the silence of dawn is softly interrupted by morning songs of birds – blending harmoniously together in a cheerful symphony of praises to their Creator. The cool morning air gives way to the warmth of the majestic solar glow.

In the few minutes it takes to pause and watch the sun pull itself up over the horizon, there’s a perpetual feast for the senses that can transform your spirit and set the tone for your day.

Jesus came into the world as “God’s Sunrise.” (Luke 1:78) His dazzling light shines brightly on the darkest caverns of our hearts and illuminates the path to peace – the path to the One true God.

Starting each day basking in the light of His Word, will refresh your soul and provide you with hope, guidance, and perspective for any circumstance you face throughout the day.  Trust Him to take your hand and guide you – one foot at a time – down the path to perfect peace.

Take time to pause in His presence, and be transformed by His Son-rise in your Soul!

Related Verse:

With every sun’s rising surprise us with Your love, satisfy us with Your kindness. Then we will sing with joy and celebrate every day we are alive. Psalm 90:14

Sep27

3 Truths about Trash-Talk

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May these words of my mouth and this meditation of my heart be pleasing in your sight, Lord, my Rock and my Redeemer. Psalm 19:14 (NIV)

God often uses ordinary events to teach His children valuable lessons, and this particular lesson involves something extra-ordinary:  garbage. More specifically…rotten garbage.

Our normal trash collection day is Monday. But a couple of weeks ago, garbage pick-up was suspended due to tropical storm warnings from Hurricane Irma. By the time the next collection day rolled around, the rancid stench from the two-week old trash was over-powering.

I knew it was exceptionally awful when my son (who seems oblivious to bad smells) commented about the odor. He took out the trash from our kitchen and came back in yelling, “Mom! Something’s ROTTEN in the garbage can!”

Those words reverberated  loudly in my ears the next morning when I read Ephesians 4:29, “Don’t let even one ROTTEN WORD seep out of your mouths…” I flashed back to a moment a few weeks before in the car when my son was driving on the highway. Traffic up ahead was stopping — but he was not slowing down. As we zoomed toward the rear end of a flat-bed tractor-trailer, words spewed out of my mouth that shocked both of us.

He quickly slowed the car to a stop and looked over at me in the passenger seat with his jaw dropped open in disbelief.  The noxious words filled our car with a foul aroma — a lingering odor that polluted our relationship for days. A simple, “Stop the car — Now!” would have worked, but I dug down deep in the garbage pit instead for my expletives. Not a proud mom-moment at all.

As I continued to read Ephesians 4:29, these words pierced my heart, “Instead only offer FRESH WORDS that build others up when they need it the most.” The trash-talk that seeped out of my mouth was far from “fresh” and did nothing to build up my son.

I immediately went to “clear the air” with him and asked him to forgive me for not only letting the rotten words flow, but also for allowing the atmosphere to become putrid between us over time. I shared with him how his description of the smelly garbage opened my eyes (and my nose!) to what my foul language had done in the car that day. I promised to aim for using only good words to communicate  grace.

Now every time I take out the garbage, I am reminded of these lessons, and I hope they can serve as reminders to you, too :

Trash-Talk Truths from a Trash Can

  • Rotten words pollute and corrupt.
  • Fresh words build others up.
  • Good words communicate Grace.

The words we speak…or text, write, post, tweet or email..have the power to build up or tear down. So many harmful words are communicated today in haste, whether from our lips or our keyboard. If we simply pause and think before we speak, we can prevent careless words from slipping off our tongues or the keys of our keyboard. Likewise, by withholding harmful words, we can prevent the malodorous consequences they may cause.

Use the power of words to build others up when they need it the most. Make each word a gift — our words may be the only glimpse of God’s Grace that others hear.

Related Scripture:

Set a guard over my mouth, Lord; keep watch over the door of my lips.        Psalm 141:3 (NIV)

The heart of the godly thinks carefully before speaking; the mouth of the wicked overflows with evil words. Proverbs 15:28 (NLT)

 

Sep13

Refining Moments Don’t Have to be Defining Moments

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And some who are most gifted in the things of God will stumble in those days and fall, but this will only refine and cleanse them and make them pure until the final end of their trials, at God’s appointed time.

Daniel 11:35(TLB)

We’ve all heard stories of famous celebrities and athletes at the pinnacle of their careers, gifted with incredible talent and success, who make reckless decisions causing them to stumble and fall. Like sharks in a feeding frenzy, the media quickly exploits these stories to an audience eager for any morsel of juicy details.

There are even biblical examples from our Superstars of Faith who stumbled:

  • Noah became shamelessly drunk on wine.
  • Abraham doubted God would give him and Sarah a son, so he took matters into his own hands and fathered a child with Hagar.
  • Moses lost his temper and disobeyed God’s instructions, costing him the chance to enter the Promised Land.
  • David committed adultery and had a man murdered to cover up his transgression.
  • Peter denied that he ever knew Christ.

We don’t have to be famous to find ourselves in the same types of situations.

We’re all imperfect humans, capable of missteps along the way. Our mistakes aren’t always reported in the judgmental view of the public eye or recorded in the Bible for generations of people to read, but we often find ourselves under the microscope of shame in our own eyes, feeling completely defined by our failures.

For believers, God uses these painful experiences to refine us.

The industrial process of refinement takes a substance with imperfections and impurities, purifying it to its most usable form. The spiritual process of refinement works the same way, only God purifies our lives to bring us to our most usable form for His kingdom.

Refinement removes our impurities.

When we emerge on the other side of the refinement process, we are cleansed and polished, more perfectly suited for God’s call on our lives. Without the cloudy imperfections, we shine for God’s glory!

As children of God, our Refining Moments don’t have to be our Defining Moments.

Noah, Abraham, Moses, David and Peter are famous for their faithfulness to God and their work in His kingdom ~ NOT for their failures. Their Refining Moments were not their Defining Moments!

God promises that He can make all things – even our failures – work together for good in the lives of His children. (Romans 8:28) He wants to use every detail of our story for His glory ~ even the times when we stumble and fall.

 

Related Scripture:

Pure gold put in the fire comes out of it proved pure; genuine faith put through this suffering comes out proved genuine. When Jesus wraps this all up, it’s your faith, not your gold, that God will have on display as evidence of his victory. 1 Peter 1:7 – 9 (MSG)

And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. Romans 8:28 (NLT)

Aug27

Adversity’s Astonishing Advantages

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“We don’t want you in the dark, friends, about how hard it was when all this came down on us in Asia province. It was so bad we didn’t think we were going to make it. We felt like we’d been sent to death row, that it was all over for us. As it turned out, it was the best thing that could have happened. Instead of trusting in our own strength or wits to get out of it, we were forced to trust God totally—not a bad idea since he’s the God who raises the dead! And he did it, rescued us from certain doom. And he’ll do it again, rescuing us as many times as we need rescuing.”             2 Corinthians 1: 8 – 10 (MSG)

If you’re dealing with extreme adversity in your life right now, it’s difficult to imagine how such suffering could ultimately produce advantageous results. Yet in the midst of trials, you develop skills to do things you would never dream possible.  Also ~

  • You learn more and grow closer to God during your darkest moments than you ever would from your shining triumphs.

Paul didn’t give details about the hardships he faced in the scripture above. Yet it was so bad he and his companions didn’t think they were going to make it. (Perhaps you can relate?)  But he then describes this near-death experience as “the best thing that could have happened.” How can that be?!

  • When you’re forced to exercise your “Faith Muscle,” your faith becomes stronger than ever. The stronger it gets, the more God can do through you.

If you’re at your wits’ end and can’t help yourself, you’re forced to trust God completely, Too often, we rely on our own ingenuity or abilities to maneuver out of situations, but in dire situations, we learn to lean on God.

  • The best result of a seemingly hopeless situation is that you place your complete trust in the God who raises the dead! His strength is sufficient for any trial.

Do you face a seemingly hopeless situation today?  Place it in God’s capable hands and watch Him work wonders!

Related Verse:  Proverbs 3: 5 – 6 (NIV)

“Trust in the Lord with all your heart and lean not on your own understanding;
in all your ways submit to him, and he will make your paths straight.”