Tag: Encouragement For The Downcast

³⁷ As He was drawing near—already on the way down the Mount of Olives—the whole multitude of His disciples began to rejoice and praise God with a loud voice for all the mighty works that they had seen, ³⁸ saying, “Blessed is the King who comes in the name of the Lord! Peace in heaven and glory in the highest!” ³⁹ And some of the Pharisees in the crowd said to Him, “Teacher, rebuke your disciples.” ⁴⁰ He answered, “I tell you, if these were silent, the very stones would cry out.” ~ Luke 19:37-40

Jesus was on His way to Jerusalem, on His way down from the Mount of Olives, when the Pharisees tried to condemn the disciples of Jesus to Jesus Himself. The book Revelation refers to Satan as the accuser of the brethren. In fact, it goes as far as to say that he accuses the Church day and night (Revelation 12:10). The Pharisees may not have been Satan himself, but they act on his behalf through the influence of his kingdom. Just as we, the Church, act on Jesus’ behalf with our actions.

Today is no different. You may not even get to your destination or even get to fully begin what you set out to do for God when a Pharisee who has been with you, listening to you, and following you tries to condemn exactly what God has called you to do. Don’t allow them to discourage you; hold to the promise and call you were given. Not everyone listening to you, surrounding you, talking to you, or conversing with you are for you. Be aware of them and seek discernment on how to respond. Jesus didn’t tell them to leave His presence or even rebuke them; Jesus instead corrected their rebuke with the Truth.

Seek the LORD earnestly for discernment, so that you may discern the Spirit of Truth from the Spirit of Error (1 John 4:6). Root yourself in God, and then His call for your life will never be shaken, regardless of who tries to tear down all that you are doing. Don’t condemn, instead correct error with the Truth of our God in love because our God is love (1 John 4:8)

Dead LORD, please give me the Spirit of Discernment so that I might discern between the Spirit of Truth and the Spirit of Error. Please continue to perfect me in Your perfect love so that there will be no room for fear, doubt, or discouragement when the enemy comes against me. Please give me the confidence of who I am in You and what I am to do for Your glory and Your Kingdom. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹ In the year that King Uzziah died, I saw the Lord, high and exalted, seated on a throne; and the train of His robe filled the temple. ² Above Him were seraphim, each with six wings: With two wings they covered their faces, with two they covered their feet, and with two they were flying. ³ And they were calling to one another: “Holy, holy, holy is the Lord Almighty; the whole earth is full of His glory.” ⁴ At the sound of their voices the doorposts and thresholds shook and the temple was filled with smoke. ⁵ “Woe to me!” I cried. “I am ruined! For I am a man of unclean lips, and I live among a people of unclean lips, and my eyes have seen the King, the Lord Almighty.” ⁶ Then one of the seraphim flew to me with a live coal in his hand, which he had taken with tongs from the altar. ⁷ With it he touched my mouth and said, “See, this has touched your lips; your guilt is taken away and your sin atoned for.” ~ Isaiah 6:1-7

Isaiah was 700 years before Jesus came on the scene; nevertheless, the LORD God made a way for an unclean man to enter into His presence. Why? Because the dwelling place of God is with mankind. We weren’t created to be separated from God. We were created to dwell with the LORD, and He is with us always. Isaiah found himself in the presence of the Almighty, and he was afraid he would die because he knew he wasn’t clean, yet God sent one of his Seraphim to stop worshipping and cleanse Isaiah so that Isaiah might remain in the LORD’s presence in all of His glory and wonder.

Today, we still enter the throne room of Almighty God, except when we do, we don’t have a need for Seraphim to cleanse our lips with a living coal; we have the perfect, redeeming, living blood of Jesus Christ covering us. We don’t have to fear entering the throne room of God Almighty and dwelling with Him because Jesus, God Himself, came to earth and redeemed us with something stronger than a coal. He redeemed us with His precious, perfect blood that speaks louder than even that of righteous Abel’s.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Confidently Enter The Throne Room.

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⁵ Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise Him, my Savior and my God. ⁶ My soul is downcast within me; therefore I will remember you from the land of the Jordan, the heights of Hermon—from Mount Mizar. ~ Psalms 42:5-6

God doesn’t just send us straight to fight Goliath. He doesn’t just send us straight to face the Nephilim of Canaan. Before we face our biggest giants, first, God gives us the lion, the bear, and all the miracles and wonders of Egypt. In doing this, God builds our faith in Him, but it’s up to us to remember these victories. Right now, throughout the entire world, there are giants popping up everywhere. Giants of fear, rebellion, and darkness. And with each giant, hopelessness begins to spread. We’re becoming like the spies in Canaan instead of like the shepherd boy, David. We’re forgetting the victories God has brought us through, and we’re allowing fear and hopelessness to take over because we’re not even fighting anymore.

During the Let Us Worship movement, led by Sean Feucht, that started in San Francisco, California, with only 400 people and now has spread worldwide. And out of this movement came the spontaneous song, Stone in the Sling, that goes like this:

All I need is a memory
Of Your victory
Like a stone in the sling
Like every time that you’ve fought for me

This is the prayer we should each be praying. We should be seeking a memory of His faithfulness. There are so many victories the LORD has brought us through, each and every one of us; all we need is a memory of these victories to encourage us to stand and fight. To stand up and fight for our countries, freedoms, and our God.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Remember Past Victories.

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³¹ but they who wait for the Lord shall renew their strength; they shall mount up with wings like eagles; they shall run and not be weary; they shall walk and not faint.~ Isaiah 40:31

The strength of the Church is fleeting. We’re tired and weary. It feels like we’re fighting a pointless battle sometimes. Obstacle after obstacle tries to slow us down and bring our run to a halt. And sometimes, our cross just feels too heavy to carry anymore. But here’s the thing, we don’t have to run the race worn out, struggling with all of this stuff.

God promised that if we spend time in His presence, He will renew us. So many of us Church folks are dying of thirst and exhaustion on the race set before us because we’re trying to run in our own strength and stamina. We aren’t strong enough to successfully run this race. We have to rely on God. We have to rely on Christ Jesus. We have to rely on His Holy Spirit. There’s no doing this alone. We’re too weak, but the LORD God is our strength. He is our strong tower. He is our Rock. He is our breath. He is our everything. Spend time with Him, and you won’t be weary or tired in this race we call life.

LORD God, please help me to desire to want to spend time with You. Help me to love You the way You deserve. Help me to be like David, who knew how to come in and go out. Teach me how to be renewed in You, LORD, so that I might hear, well done my good and faithful servant with whom I am well pleased, at the end of my race. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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And the Lord restored the fortunes of Job, when he had prayed for his friends. And the Lord gave Job twice as much as he had before. Then came to him all his brothers and sisters and all who had known him before, and ate bread with him in his house. And they showed him sympathy and comforted him for all the evil that the Lord had brought upon him. And each of them gave him a piece of money and a ring of gold. ~ Job 42:10-11

Job has one of the hardest stories to grasp in the Bible. He was such a righteous man that he was the wager of God and Satan. Satan is allowed to torment Job and afflict him for a certain amount of time. It wasn’t just superficial things that Satan took from him and afflicted him with. Job lost everything. He lost his children. His fortune. His health. It was so bad that Job’s wife told him to curse God and die. Job’s response is, shall I only accept good from God and not also the bad? Wow. What a response. In spite of it all, Job didn’t lose sight of the God whom he served. And because of this, Job’s reward was double what he had.

I used to think this was the end of Job’s story, but there was more. Job wasn’t an only child. He had siblings. Nevertheless, they didn’t come to him. They didn’t check in on him. They didn’t comfort him. There was no communication between Job and his siblings until after the LORD restored to Job all that he lost and more. So many of us would see that as them using him. I know I sure would feel used, but what if Job’s trial was used by God in order to restore his relationship with his siblings? God takes what the Devil meant for our evil and makes it for our good.

Job’s siblings didn’t just come to him after he was restored. They comforted him and had sympathy for him. Their love for their brother was restored. Not only that, but they also brought gifts for him. Why would they bring gifts? Could it be an apology for the distance? Maybe they were jealous like Cain was of Abel. Maybe they were bereaved by the blessings and favor Job had received from God. Maybe they felt less than around him. The Bible doesn’t say, but we can safely assume there was distance between them. And when God restored Job, He restored his relationships with his siblings as well.

Be encouraged. Lay your desires of reconciliation at the feet of Jesus. Pray for His favor. Pray for His forgiveness. Pray for His restoration.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Pray and Watch For Restoration.

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¹² “This is what the Lord says: ‘Your wound is incurable, your injury beyond healing. ¹³ There is no one to plead your cause, no remedy for your sore, no healing for you. ¹⁴ All your allies have forgotten you; they care nothing for you. I have struck you as an enemy would and punished you as would the cruel, because your guilt is so great and your sins so many. ¹⁵ Why do you cry out over your wound, your pain that has no cure? Because of your great guilt and many sins I have done these things to you. ¹⁶ But all who devour you will be devoured; all your enemies will go into exile. Those who plunder you will be plundered; all who make spoil of you I will despoil. ¹⁷ But I will restore you to health and heal your wounds,’ declares the Lord, ‘because you are called an outcast, Zion for whom no one cares.’ ¹⁸ This is what the Lord says: ‘I will restore the fortunes of Jacob’s tents and have compassion on His dwellings; the city will be rebuilt on her ruins, and the palace will stand in its proper place.’” ~ Jeremiah 30:12-18^NIV

Zion, the city of the LORD, has constantly been attacked through the generations since its establishment. Zion has been trampled, and the Temple no longer stands in its place, yet the LORD says He will have compassion on the city of Zion. He will have compassion on His dwelling. He will restore Zion and heal her wounds. This is just a city, but the LORD will restore it. If the LORD has compassion on His city, how much more will He have compassion on His people in whom He dwells?

The LORD promised us restoration from the days of the disciples and the apostles. Restoration for all that we have gone through, from sickness to torment. For by the wounds of Jesus, we have been healed. The chastisement that brought us peace was upon Him. There is restoration for the Church in Christ Jesus. We don’t have to remain wounded beyond repair, as the world tells us. We don’t have to go through life without peace, constantly tormented as the world tells us is normal. No, we have been restored by the LORD God Himself. He bought our freedom, so don’t dwell in slavery. Claim your healing. Claim your freedom. Claim your restoration.

LORD God, help me to claim my healing that You have purchased for me. Help me to claim my peace of mind that You purchased for me. Help me to claim the peace that You gave me that belongs to You. The peace that is Yours, that the world cannot give and the world cannot take away. Teach me how to be restored in You, LORD God. Help me to be transformed by the renewal of my mind through Your precious and Holy Spirit. In Jesus’ name, I pray, amen.

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¹ By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, when we remembered Zion. ~ Psalms 137:1

This Psalm has been turned into a song. It’s sung as a happy and even joyous song. One tends to sing it without really thinking too much about it. But in actuality, this Psalm is very sad and heartbreaking. It was written probably somewhere around the Chebar River and the Euphrates River. The Jewish people had been forcibly taken from their homeland. They were as it was, in captivity, because of their idolatry. Everything they knew and loved was destroyed, crushed, broken, and burned, including their beloved Temple.

Their homes had been ransacked; their husbands and sons were slain by the edge of the sword. Their young women were raped and beaten in the streets. Their precious memories, keepsakes, and heirlooms were all either stolen or destroyed. Not one stone was left on the top of the other. Their beautiful buildings, the city walls, and everything they cared about and valued, including the Temple articles used for worship, were taken from them and carried off to Babylon.

Their idolatrous king was captured, and his sons were murdered in front of him, and then his eyes were plucked out, and he too, was carried off to Babylon, where he died. His wives and his daughters were ravished, and everyone that did not starve to death or perish in the Babylonian invasion were all stripped and marched off to captivity.

Now to add salt to the wounds, their captives were requiring them to sing songs of joy. Songs they sang in Jerusalem. Songs of celebration. But they answered, “How can we sing the LORD’s songs in this place of captivity? It will be like forgetting Jerusalem. Forgetting our former way of life and our freedom, we cannot sing songs of joy in this foreign land.”

They remembered not only their homeland and their way of life but they remembered that they had a promise from God. A promise through the prophet Jeremiah. The same Jeremiah they persecuted and thrown into a cistern where he sunk down into the mud because of his prophecies of destruction for turning away from the LORD their God.

The next time you are feeling low. The next time someone taunts you because of your Christian stance. The next time they laugh at you and call your Christian faith an outdated and antiquated religion, just let it roll off your back like water on a duck’s back. Instead of giving in to their taunts, sneers, jesting, and laughing, choose to focus on the promises of God. Choose to remember and recall the promises that God will bless you. You are the head and not the tail. You are the chosen ones, and God is for you, even if it doesn’t look like it now.

Remember, most of all, Jesus’ promise to come back and get us. He will not leave us destitute, nor will He forget us here. But He will come back for us, bringing His rewards for us with Him and His recompense for those who hate Him and who have persecuted us. So, encourage yourselves with these words; Jesus loves me and has made a way for me to live with Him forever in peace and everlasting blessings.

Heavenly Father, thank You for Your great and marvelous promises. Thank You for the gift of life. And when life begins to get me down, and times begin to get hard and difficult, help me to remember that You are for me. Help me to remember that Jesus is coming back to deliver me out of the hands of evil men. Strengthen my resolve now; in Jesus’ Name, I pray, amen.

Scripture Reading

¹ By the rivers of Babylon, there we sat down, yea, we wept, When we remembered Zion. ² We hanged our harps Upon the willows in the midst thereof. ³ For there they that carried us away captive required of us a song; And they that wasted us required of us mirth, Saying, Sing us one of the songs of Zion. ⁴ How shall we sing the Lord’s song In a strange land? ⁵ If I forget thee, O Jerusalem, Let my right hand forget her cunning. ⁶ If I do not remember thee, Let my tongue cleave to the roof of my mouth; If I prefer not Jerusalem above my chief joy. ⁷ Remember, O Lord, the children of Edom in the day of Jerusalem; Who said, Rase it, rase it, even to the foundation thereof. ⁸ O daughter of Babylon, who art to be destroyed; Happy shall he be, that rewardeth thee As thou hast served us. ⁹ Happy shall he be, that taketh And dasheth thy little ones against the stones.

Psalms 137:1-9

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¹⁷ Therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he is a new creation. The old has passed away; behold, the new has come. ~ 2 Corinthians 5:17b

At midnight we rang in a new year. 2023 has begun, and our slate has been wiped clean. With each year, we are given another chance, a new opportunity to follow through on our plans, goals, and resolutions. Another opportunity to right wrongs and rebuild bridges that we’ve previously lost. Today is the beginning of a new life. We don’t have to continue in our old ways walking around the mountain day after day and year after year. Not everyone gets to see a new year. Don’t waste the blessing God has bestowed upon you.

Peace. Love. Go Forth and Make This Year Better Than The Last.

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²⁰ But as he considered these things, behold, an angel of the Lord appeared to him in a dream, saying, “Joseph, son of David, do not fear to take Mary as your wife, for that which is conceived in her is from the Holy Spirit. ²¹ She will bear a son, and you shall call His name Jesus, for He will save His people from their sins.” ~ Matthew 1:20-21

Jesus lived, died, and was raised to life again. By this, He purchased our salvation. And if that was all, that would be enough. But not only did Jesus purchase our salvation, but He purchased our peace and our healing. Through His name, we have been given authority to cast out demonic and evil spirits. In His name, relationships are restored. In His name are all of the blessings that are found in God.

All we need to do is to call upon the name of Jesus, our LORD and Savior, and our Salvation, and He will make everything right.

But please understand I’m not saying that life will magically become a cakewalk. Jesus, in fact, warns us that there will be many troubles, trials, and sorrows while on this earth, but He didn’t stop there. He didn’t leave us hopeless. Jesus goes on to encourage us by saying, “Take heart, for I have overcome the world (John 16:33).”

Jesus doesn’t promise us all sunshine and rainbows. He tells you like it is, “You will have many trials and many sorrows.” But in His name, we can have peace. In His name, we can overcome. This is why He came. To save mankind. To save the world. To bring peace. To bring hope. To bring salvation.

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

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