Category: Encouragement For The Downcast

³¹ When the words that David spoke were heard, they repeated them before Saul, and he sent for him. ³² And David said to Saul, “Let no man’s heart fail because of him. Your servant will go and fight with this Philistine.” ³³ And Saul said to David, “You are not able to go against this Philistine to fight with him, for you are but a youth, and he has been a man of war from his youth.” ³⁴ But David said to Saul, “Your servant used to keep sheep for his father. And when there came a lion, or a bear, and took a lamb from the flock, ³⁵ I went after him and struck him and delivered it out of his mouth. And if he arose against me, I caught him by his beard and struck him and killed him. ~ 1 Samuel 17:31-35

They say there are five love languages: Words of Affirmation, Quality Time, Receiving Gifts, Acts of Service, and Physical Touch. My love language is words of affirmation. I’m a big words person. In fact, my room is covered I my favorite quotes all over my walls. Words will either make or break me. But David didn’t care about other people’s words. He only cared about God’s words. See, David had just been given a promise by God. He had just been anointed king of Israel. This promise is probably a big part of David’s confidence and assurance because God Himself had called him by name, and that was all that mattered to David.

So, many of us today, myself included, depend on others to fulfill and satisfy our love language so that we can have a good uplifting day. The problem is that the only person we should seek to fulfill and satisfy this need in us is God. He will never disregard or disappoint you. He is the very essence of love. He is love itself. So, when someone rejects you, tears you down, overlooks you, or makes you feel invisible, insignificant, or small, remind yourself that God has chosen you by name to be His child, and no one can remove you from His hand nor His love.

Don’t count on others to satisfy and fulfill your love language. Count on God and God alone who made you. No one will ever truly be able to satisfy your love language except for God because no one else is perfect like God. Therefore, seek Him. Spend time with Him. Worship Him. And follow Him.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Go In Confidence.

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²¹ And it is God who establishes us with you in Christ, and has anointed us, ²² and who has also put His seal on us and given us His Spirit in our hearts as a guarantee. ~ 2 Corinthians 1:21-22

One of my favorite movies is A Knight’s Tale. The whole plot of the movie is about a young man, the son of a thatcher, who fakes papers of nobility so that he can joust and his friends and he will not starve because they’re poor. The more he wins, the more one of the nobles becomes angry and envious.

During this time period, it was a crime to endanger the royal family, and the prince was in disguise so he could compete in the joust. Everyone who found out that it was the prince withdrew, except for this one pauper pretending to be a knight. It made the prince smile that he wouldn’t withdraw even though he knew that he was the prince.

At the final joust, the young pauper was exposed and placed in the stocks as a punishment. The same people that were once cheering his name were now throwing food at him as he lay there in bondage, helpless. His friends tried their best to get the people to stop, but the people wouldn’t listen to them. Then the prince shows up. He has the young man released, and he says,

He may appear to be of humble origins, but my personal historians have discovered that he descends from an ancient royal line. This is my word. And as such, is beyond contestation.

Prince Edward,
A Knight’s Tale

After this, he knights this peasant, the son of a thatcher, and from then on, he is known as Sir William. Many of us have a similar story. We start going to church, reading our Bible and even begin to seek God through prayer. And just when we think things are going good, the Devil comes in and shows us all that we’ve ever done, said, and thought. Then he binds us up in the stocks of shame and regret. But just like the prince came looking for the young man that had shown him kindness, so does Jesus come looking for the one that sought Him out. The prince freed and knighted the peasant man on his word alone; Jesus frees and makes us heirs with Him based on much more than just His word. He frees us, washes us clean, and makes us sons and daughters of His Father in Heaven by His blood that He shed for us.

If, during medieval times, the word of royalty could not be contested, how much more would the word of our God who created those royals and all else not be contested when He said, ‘you are mine’ to all who believe? Don’t allow the Devil to come in and steal your name, for your name is ‘Child of The King.’ And the King Himself has spoken these words to you, so don’t let a noble steal your inheritance.

Get up from the stocks of shame and guilt. You are redeemed. Your past has been washed clean. Don’t return to it. Move forward. Live your life as the child of God you were created to be. Dwell in freedom.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Be More Than Knighted.

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^26b …for I am the Lord, your healer. ~ Exodus 15:26b

The LORD declares that He sent His Word and healed our disease. Many of us, including myself, missed what God was really saying. The Word of God isn’t just words God spoke thousands of years ago; the Word of God is Jesus. Jesus was, is, and always will be the Word of God, which is why there is healing in His hands. This is why there is still healing in His hands today. Jesus is not dead. He is alive and well, seated at the right hand of the Father, full of glory and honor and power.

God didn’t say He is the God that healed you. No. God proclaimed He is the God that heals you. Healing is the children’s bread. Healing was purchased with every stripe on His back. Did that price Jesus paid only pay for those of the early Church? No. It paid for all who come to Him. All from every generation. So, claim your healing. Proclaim your healing over your body. Don’t allow those who want to water down the Word of God to cause you to doubt what Jesus purchased for you 2,000 years ago. The Word of God dwells in us today. He is working through us still today. Therefore, claim your healing with confidence in the great almighty healer. Claim your healing in Jesus Christ, our LORD, our savior, and our God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Receive His Sent Word.

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¹⁵ Our lives are a Christ-like fragrance rising up to God. But this fragrance is perceived differently by those who are being saved and by those who are perishing. ¹⁶ To those who are perishing, we are a dreadful smell of death and doom. But to those who are being saved, we are a life-giving perfume. ~ 2 Corinthians 2:15-16a

So many of us are desperate for the world’s approval over God’s approval. Why? Because we’re physically here on earth. We’re physically living among the world, not physically living in Heaven where God abides. Because most of us only look in the physical and not in the spiritual, we miss out on what’s right in front of us. Our body may live in the physical, but that’s not who we are. We are our souls. We are our spirit, and both our soul and spirit abide and are subject to the spiritual. Does that mean that the physical and the spiritual aren’t connected? By no means. What we do in the physical will affect the spiritual, sometimes instantly. But if we only live by the physical, we’re walking, living, and acting blind.

We have to start looking at our actions and others’ reactions differently. If the LORD God says that this is right, we do it, and the world gets upset at us, we have to ask ourselves, why? The reason the world hates what God calls good is that the world isn’t of God. We have been called out of the world; therefore, the world hates us because we are no longer like the world. Ted Dekker wrote a novel series called The Circle. Within The Circle, he explained the world of sin and the kingdom of Heaven in physically for us to imagine what it may look in the spiritual. For instance, those who were of the world had skin that was stink, cracking, and decaying, yet to them, it was a sweet aroma. Those who had been saved and washed clean through redemption had sweet, smooth, soft skin, yet to those of the world, their aroma was stink and foul. This is the best depiction I’ve seen in a novel of how sin and righteousness would manifest physically in our world.

So, don’t be discouraged. Don’t be dismayed. Don’t allow the taunts of the enemy to break you down, for if the world hates you, it’s because they hate Him who sent you. If you’re following the LORD and doing as He has called you to do, and the world rejects you and speaks all manner of evil against you, remember that they did the same to Christ, and He overcame. Therefore, we have this confidence that we will overcome as well, for Christ Himself lives in us and through us. Don’t lean on your own understanding or even your own physical eyes. Focus on the spiritual and what God has called you to do. If you do this, God will be with you in all things. And if God is for you, who can be against you?

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Claim Your Aroma.

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¹ After this, David asked the Lord, “Should I move back to one of the towns of Judah?” “Yes,” the Lord replied. Then David asked, “Which town should I go to?” “To Hebron,” the Lord answered. ¹ Then all the tribes of Israel went to David at Hebron and told him, “We are your own flesh and blood.” ³ So there at Hebron, King David made a covenant before the Lord with all the elders of Israel. And they anointed him king of Israel. ~ 2 Samuel 2:1; 5:1, 3 ^NLT

King Saul was dead, and it was time for David to officially take the throne as king of all of Israel. When David asked the LORD where he should go to be anointed as king of Israel, the LORD told him to go to Hebron. So, what’s so special about Hebron? Hebron was where Abram settled and built an altar to the LORD. It’s the place where the Hebrews were established. God took David back to the place where it all began. The question now begs, why? Could it be that God was establishing David as king in the same place that He established Abraham as the father of the Hebrews because God was symbolically starting over?

Keep in mind that Israel had judges, prophets, and another king before David, yet it was David that God said He would establish one of his descendants on his throne forever. It was Abraham whom God made the original covenant that we are still under, and we are still called children of Abraham. Sometimes God takes us back to a significant place in order that He might, in a sense, start over. No judge, prophet, or other king of Israel has been or will ever be established as these two men have been. Even when giving Jesus’ ancestry, Matthew, inspired by the Holy Spirit, writes that there were fourteen generations from Abraham to David. Who else is remembered and/or honored in this way that they are a timeline for the Messiah Himself? No one.

Sometimes God takes us back to the past of our ancestors because He is establishing us in ways that we may not understand and that time. So, if God tells you to go somewhere or do something that feels as if it may just be repeating history, follow His instruction. If you don’t, you may miss out on the blessing of one that came before you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Go Back To Go Forward.

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¹⁶ For God so loved the world, that He gave His only Son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life. ~ John 3:16

The promise that God loves you dearly is backed up with action. The death of Jesus by crucifixion on a Roman cross is proof that Jesus/God/The Father loves you more than you will even begin to understand.

Take that promise in times when the devil comes to torment your mind that no one loves you. And just encourage yourself that the LORD, the God of all creation and supreme ruler of the whole universe, loves you and died for you.

All you have to do is believe, and He will do the rest. He will forgive and wash you clean. He will comfort and give you peace. He will watch over and keep you safe. There is nothing that your God will not do for you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Believe In His Love.

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³ When everything is ready, I will come and get you, so that you will always be with me where I am. ~ John 14:3^NLT

2,000 years ago, Jesus came to the earth, died for our sins, rose again, and ascended on high. Since then, the world hasn’t physically seen Him again. It’s easy to get discouraged that our God has forgotten about us or that He’s taking too long to return, but God is never late, and neither does He forget about His people.

2,000 years ago, only a small portion of the Jews were prepared for the Messiah to come. Only a small portion of them followed Him. Only a small portion of them could recognize the Messiah when they saw Him.

Today, the Church is just as Israel was 2,000 years ago. Only a small portion of the Church knows who Christ truly is. Only a small portion of the Church follows Him and awaits His return, while others say that His return removes the hope of our next generation. Jesus warned that the world would try to lead the Church astray so that we weren’t ready for His return, just as the Jews weren’t so many years ago. Don’t miss out on the return of Jesus. Don’t miss His second coming, for He will return for His people and gather them to Himself to be with Him always.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Don’t Miss Out.

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²⁵ When the storms of life come, the wicked are whirled away, but the godly have a lasting foundation. ~ Proverbs 10:25^NLT

On the outside, physically speaking, the Church may look no different from the world, but when you look on the inside and take a look at the soul, you’ll see the difference. The world relies on the strength of themselves, idols, false gods, mankind, kings, etc., while the Church retired on God Almighty.

We don’t rely on idols, false gods, or even angels of God. We rely on The Almighty, who created all things. We build our lives on the Rock that cannot be moved. So when trials and tribulations come our way, we are not moved. We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not driven to despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed (2 Corinthians 4:8-9). We may look like the world on the outside, physically, but on the inside, we are completely different, for we stand on the Rock that cannot be moved.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Stand on the Rock.

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41 And He withdrew from them about a stone’s throw, and knelt down and prayed, 42 saying, “Father, if You are willing, remove this cup from me. Nevertheless, not my will, but Yours, be done.” 43 And there appeared to Him an angel from heaven, strengthening Him. ~ Luke 22:41–43

When Jesus was at His weakest, He knelt down and placed His pain before the Father. He didn’t hold on to it Himself. He didn’t try to go through the battle alone. No, instead, He took it to His Father and laid it down at His feet. Jesus, God incarnate, didn’t try to carry His own burden, nor did He try to fight the will of His Father. The cross He had to bear was heavy. His sweat became like blood just thinking about it. He took His stress to the Father and asked if there was another way. The Father wasn’t upset or angry. He wasn’t disappointed or frustrated. The Father, with love, sent an angel from heaven to encourage and strengthen Jesus. Why?

Jesus asked if it was possible for the cup to be removed from Him, but He didn’t leave it there. Jesus ultimately prayed that the Father’s will would be done. We can bring anything before our Heavenly Father, but we need to always remember to end our requests with praying for the Father’s will to be ultimately done. It would’ve been easier for Jesus if the Father had removed the cup from His hand, but it would’ve meant that all of mankind would die in our sins. Look at Moses; he missed out on his healing and almost missed his call altogether because he didn’t end his request with, ‘but let Your will be done.’

Sometimes our cup seems too hard to bear. Sometimes it seems like our yoke is too heavy for our shoulders, but remember, our God is faithful. He will carry our burdens for us, and He will send His angels to strengthen and minister to us. We’re not alone; His very Spirit dwells inside of us. The Spirit of God even prays on our behalf because we don’t know how to properly pray for ourselves. We don’t have to carry our burdens alone. We don’t have to carry the cross by ourselves. Go to Your Heavenly Father and lay your burden at His feet. Ask Him for help.

LORD God, please remove this heavy burden from my shoulders. Please lift the weight that is weighing me down. I know Your will is perfect and is for my good. Please strengthen me that I might dwell in Your will. That I might grow weary of doing good. Teach me to love You and follow You the way You deserve. Please give me wisdom that I might see You in every trial and tribulation. Help me to fulfill Your will for my life. In Jesus’s name, I pray, amen.

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