Encouraging Words Devotional

Finish this statement: “If I just had enough money, I would…”  How would you finish that sentence?  “Live in a mansion, drive a sports car, hire all my work done and travel”? Or would you say something like “Stop HIV-AIDS and relieve world hunger”? Or maybe your answer would be, “I’d share the Gospel in massive ways so that everyone in the world can know Jesus died for their sins and will forgive them.”

A young mom who was having a frustrating week sent me an email saying, “I’m in a ‘kicking, screaming, I don’t wanna’ do it’ mood this week.”  Can you identify with her? I certainly can. Sometimes I go so far as to get my week totally organized—lists made, priorities identified—and then I look at the #1 item on the list and think, “I don’t want to do this--I’m not in the mood—in fact, I’m not going to do it!”

Paul so often began his writings to the New Testament churches with the greetings, “Grace and peace.” Bible teacher G. Campbell Morgan says that “grace” was first of all in Greek an intellectual and artistic word. It included the idea of “beauty as against ugliness, health as against disease, order as against chaos, all the realm of that which is beautiful.”

Here’s what a friend of mine wrote about the guilt she was experiencing:

Condemnation--I felt it every day. The enemy would scream denunciation into my ear for the daily sins I was committing.

In God’s eyes, are you more precious than diamonds? Could it be true? 

Think for a moment about diamonds. They are one of the most precious items in creation, rare, beautiful and highly prized. But they are nothing compared to how God values us--yes, we who trip and fall and fail more often than we care to admit.

One day my husband called me and said that Lisa needed a place to live for a few months.  “What do you think of inviting her to live with us?” Not one to wait long before making a decision, my husband stayed on the phone for my answer.

I’ve been giving some thought to the fact that my brain never seems to turn off.  I’m always thinking.  If I try not to think, I’m only thinking that I’m not thinking! I wonder if God made our brains so that they never turn off so that we could truly “pray without ceasing,” as 1 Thessalonians 5:17 instructs us. Or at least center our thoughts on God throughout the day--not just at the beginning and end of each day.  If that is true, I realize a lot of my brain energy goes to non-essentials.  God made me with the potential to fellowship with Him at any time.  But do I take advantage of that ability?  Not as often as I could or should.

In his book Senior Moments, Willard Spiegelman expressed a very pessimistic view on life: “We come into the world alone, with a cry,” he reminds us. Then he adds, “We exit alone, to confront the final eternal silence. The fun, all the pleasure and adventure, lies in between.”

If you feel that the situation you face is hopeless, you may fall into a pit of depression that can even lead to suicide. After all, you reason, if there is no hope of change, why continue living?