Hope For Today "Encouragement"

All of us long for recognition of a commitment kept, a job well done, or an act of service given.  God is committed to honouring us as we live for Him.  As we honour God and others, through our obedience to God’s word, we in turn will receive honor and respect from God and others. The Bible is full of specifics about this and we review just a few of the practical ways we are encouraged to live as honourable people today.

Today we are encouraged to recognize how much influence we can have and how much good we can do even though we may not have a lot of money or prestige.

What priorities do we give to our communication in whatever form we send it out - phone, text, social media etc? What kind of words really matter as we make contact with others?

As we said last time, it’s normal to feel sad sometimes and fortunately for us, God is with us, noticing our sadness, and ready to help us find comfort and healing. The first thing we have to do, though, is often one of the most challenging.  We have to admit we are sad, instead of trying to cover it up, and we have to call out to Jesus for help. And then there are some practical things we can do that lift us up.

It’s normal to feel sad sometimes.  Where can we find help when we feel sad? There are many factors that bring sadness at various times. But usually the cause of the sadness is not the first question in our minds. What goes through our thoughts over and over again is:  Does anyone notice?  Does anyone care?  Does anyone understand? Is there anyone to help me? The strong answer is "Yes."

We can all feel pretty good about things when we are doing well or someone around us is doing well and our circumstances are okay but today we look at the kind of encouragement that is there for us through thick and thin, through our successes and our failures, through our times of well-being in relationships and when things are seemingly hopeless messed up.