Above The Waves : Messages of Hope and Encouragement

Join us for Week Three of Pieces. This six-week series serves as a snapshot of the book of Job, providing comfort and encouragement to anyone experiencing a difficult circumstance. Have you ever felt broken? Have you ever wondered why? Many of us have thoughts such as these? Job’s story is often our story. Yet, even in the midst of pain and suffering, we can trust in the power of our creator. #Pieces #TheSalvationArmy #HotSprings

Join us for Week Two of Pieces. This six-week series serves as a snapshot of the book of Job, providing comfort and encouragement to anyone experiencing a difficult circumstance. Have you ever felt broken? Have you ever wondered why? Many of us have thoughts such as these? Job’s story is often our story. Yet, even in the midst of pain and suffering, we can trust in the power of our creator. #Pieces #TheSalvationArmy #HotSprings

Join us for Week One of Pieces. This six-week series serves as a snapshot of the book of Job, providing comfort and encouragement to anyone experiencing a difficult circumstance. Have you ever felt broken? Have you ever wondered why? Many of us have thoughts such as these? Job’s story is often our story. Yet, even in the midst of pain and suffering, we can trust in the power of our creator.

We all have pet peeves that we find annoying. But it’s a different story when something goes from annoying to hurtful. Whether it’s by someone close to you, or just an acquaintance, we all know what it feels like to be hurt by other people. In a perfect world, we can avoid that kind of relational pain altogether, but the truth is, these kinds of hurt are bound to happen. It’s inevitable. And when it happens, we are left with a decision: What do we do now? How are we going to respond? These past couple of weeks we’ve been looking at wisdom found in the book of Proverbs; wisdom that can help us live in a way that leads to less regret and an all-around better life. And the advice we’re talking about today has the potential to forever change the way we handle conflict with people around us. That doesn’t mean it’s easy, but if you commit to do this, you won’t regret it. Find out what patient people know this week, and see how it helps them to live a better story. #NowandLater #TheSalvationArmy

Some people are more prone to setting goals than others. In fact, some people are great at it. They have a list of what they want to accomplish and it happens. While others of us have that same list, but month after month, nothing moves off of that list. We spend more time talking about our goals than actually doing anything about them. So, what’s the problem? What needs to change? This week, we’re diving back into the book of Proverbs, and we’ll see that the author wrote about this exact topic. Humans have been struggling with setting and reaching goals for as long as we’ve been around. But that doesn’t have to be true of you anymore. The change starts when we realize how our tomorrow connects to our today—how our later begins now. #NowandLater #TheSalvationArmy

If we define reputation as what people generally think about us, that makes it a big deal. Yet, even though it’s directly tied to us, our reputation often feels like something that is largely out of our control. We started talking about this idea of now and later, and how pursuing wisdom in certain areas of our lives now will impact our lives for the better both now and later. And having a good reputation certainly fits into the category of something we want to do well now and in the future. There are a lot of things that make this complicated. Reputations can be good, bad, inaccurate, or completely out of our control. But if we can make decisions that affect the way others see us—more importantly, how they see God— then building a strong reputation is worth doing. In fact, we might say that a good reputation is good for us now and good for us later. #TheSalvationArmy #NowandLater

Life would be much easier if every situation was black and white, and there were clear solutions to every problem. However, we know life doesn’t work like that. In fact, life seems to be a lot more gray than most of us would prefer, which means making decisions isn’t as easy as we’d like. So, how do you make decisions when the answer isn’t obvious and when the way forward isn’t clear? A lot of it comes down to wisdom. But what exactly does wisdom look like in the gray areas of life? This question matters because wisdom is more than making decisions in our current situations. In fact, wisdom has an effect on our future situations as well. And that’s what we’re going to look at in this series. How do we use wisdom to make decisions now that will give us the outcome we want later. #NowandLater #TheSalvationArmy

If you’ve ever had a sales job, you know it brings on a unique kind of pressure. But even if you haven’t, you know the same feeling: If you have kids, you’re constantly trying to sell them—to do their homework, eat their vegetables, or clean their rooms. But even if you’re not a parent, we all grade ourselves on our ability to sell something: The carrot of “good enough” dangles just outside of our reach—In our jobs, church, or relationships. We remember very few moments when we actually stop, take a deep breath, and say: “I’m okay. I’m doing a good job.” Let’s face it. Most of us spend a good portion of our lives disappointed at ourselves. And when we’re disappointed at ourselves, we think God must be disappointed as well. But the reality isn’t like that. In fact, Jesus addressed this very issue and explained why we all need to make room for grace. #MakingSpace #TheSalvationArmy

Logically, we know that social media is just a highlight reel. Yet, as we scroll, we find ourselves wondering why everyone else seems so much happier than us. It’s hard not to compare. We know that most people live a very different life than what they portray online. But even though we know this, it can still strike a chord with us. Why do they have joy and we don’t? And it’s interesting that as Christians, this longing for a joyful life is even more profound. Because we don’t just desire joy, do we? No, we expect it. As people who choose to follow Jesus, we can believe that joy should be a natural byproduct of that choice. But what if there’s a different way to view joy? What if we’re using the wrong standard to measure contentment? What if—and this a big what if—we can actually choose joy? #MakingSpace #LiveABetterStory

On Sunday, April 19, 2020, we ask for a day of focused prayer, setting aside our appetites and our physical comfort for the sake of others impacted by COVID-19. Join us as we redirect our energies toward God, Scripture, and intercession. Devotional provided by Quartlan Philips.