Be Encouraged, Friend

 
 

If you feel like you are in a church where the leadership doesn’t have your best interest at heart, be encouraged. There is a friend that sticks closer than a brother. Christ will never let you down, never forsake you (Hebrews 13:5; Proverbs 18:24).

If you feel like the nation that you grew up in is throwing away it’s heritage and trapping you inside of a giant goosestepping gulag, be encouraged. As Christians, we are looking for a better country and a better city whose Builder and Maker is God (Hebrews 11:10). Here we have no enduring city; we are looking for the one to come.

If you feel like you are all alone and the trials that you are experiencing are unique to you and there’s no way out, be encouraged. There is no trouble that has taken you but such is common to man (1 Corinthians 10:13). Other brothers and sisters are going through similar trials with the Lord by their sides.

If you feel like sin stalks you at every step and is stronger than you are, be encouraged. We can be more than conquerors through Him who loves us.

If you feel like the church you grew up in has left its moorings and you are a captive of the clammy hand of capitulation, be encouraged. There is a group who keep the Commandments of God and have the testimony of Jesus Christ. They help keep the world from rotting away at the seams tonight.

If you feel like politics is swallowing up all the good things in your life, creating strife and friction where once was camaraderie, be encouraged. We are in the world but not of the world. We can exchange the politics of earth for the government of God, starting now.

If you feel like friends that you thought you could trust are no longer trust worthy, be encouraged. Ask God to bring new friends into your life, friends cut from the fine cloth of biblical integrity.

If you have lost friends over the last two years, be encouraged. If your heart is in the right place, God will give you three new friends to replace every one that you lost.

If you are frustrated because people won’t do what you want them to, be encouraged, and be humbled. It is pride which seeks to control other people. As we humble ourselves in the sight of God, He will lift us up to a different place. A better place than where we walked in pride. A better place with better goals better love and the quiet power of humility.

If it feels like money is running out and the future is uncertain, be encouraged. God has promised that the bread and water of the faithful will be sure (Isaiah 33:16).

If it feels like a pro-abortion, pro-LGBT, pro-labor union, pro- radical environmentalist cabal is taking control over this land and over your life, be encouraged. Our Kingdom is not of this world. Nations will fall and fail just as the Bible predicted that in the last days perilous times would come. Those times are here, and so is the Lord Jesus Christ and his marvelous Holy Spirit.

If you are tempted to replace worldly politics with church politics in hopes of solving your problems, be encouraged and be corrected. There are no human solutions. God has appointed us as believers that we would go and bear fruit and that our fruit should remain (John 15:16).

If you feel like conscription and coercion is taking the place of the Holy Spirit in your life, be encouraged. The Comforter is here. His job is to convict, guide and call to mind the truth of God’s Word. He’s here. Be encouraged.

If your health is ravaged by disease and the future looks uncertain, be encouraged. God has given us the best lifestyle counsel and made a way that our physical and spiritual health will reflect His glory.

If we look at our life and see sin and dishonor, be encouraged. God can lead us to walk in truth. Our lives can become a reflection of His and He will throw our sins into the depths of the deepest ocean.

If you are impatient by nature, be encouraged. They that wait upon the Lord shall renew their strength and they shall mount up with wings like eagles. They shall run and not be weary (Isaiah 40:31). There is hope.

If you feel like you are surrounded by trials especially during the last two years, be encouraged. God is using trials to perfect our characters and to unite us with brothers and sisters who are enduring the same trials.

If you feel that you are surrounded by the enemies of God, be encouraged. God has promised to break the teeth of the ungodly (Psalm 3). This will keep them from biting you.

If you feel like your prayers don’t go any higher than the ceiling of your house, be encouraged. And go outside. We have a God who says “Call unto me and I will show you great and mighty things that thou knowest not” (Jeremiah 33:3).

Be encouraged.

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