I’m Curious About How to Encourage All the Discouraged People

Daily writing promptWhat are you curious about?View all responses

All the discouraged people want hope. They pursue it in political figures and hunt for it in celebrity-worship. They look for it in religion and even grasp for it in mind altering substances.

I’m curious about how to encourage all the discouraged people. That curiosity causes me to think a lot about the most encouraged people I’ve ever met in person or read about in history. Those people have one thing in common. They have a life-consuming faith that resounds far beyond routine religion. The Bible is full of people like that: the Old Testament prophets, the early followers of Jesus, and of course Christ Himself.

My curiosity keeps me reading the writings of people whose faith sets my heart on fire. I’ve read many hundreds of books like that (most written by people who died long ago). Curiosity makes me want to find and spend time interacting heart-to-heart with present-day people who are unashamedly and passionately focused on and in love with the risen Jesus. (Sometimes they are difficult to find.)

No matter what I’m facing, the living Jesus gives me hope and keeps encouragement flowing from deep within me. I’m curious about how to effectively pass that encouragement on to all the discouraged people. My heart breaks because I don’t know how to effectively share Christ’s encouragement so that He becomes real to multitudes of hopeless people the way that He continually shows Himself as real to me. And my curiosity grows ever stronger.

This prayer comes from deep in my heart! “Lord, show me anything I can do to help You encourage all the discouraged people.”

Here are some of the most recent words that have come to my heart. I hope they help you find hope.

Biblical Christianity is ongoing interaction with and surrender to the risen Jesus. It is spontaneous like breathing. It’s not something that needs to be programmed or institutionalized.

You Can See Hope More Clearly

Hearing a sermon
And singing some songs
Will be deceptive
If they don’t align
With the Bible.
Search the Scriptures
And do what they say.
Hear what God’s Spirit says
So you won’t be deceived.
“Humble yourself.”
“Bless those who curse you.”
“Love your enemies.”
(See Acts 17:11 and James 1:22.)

If you feel devalued, this might be the reason. Love doesn’t applaud, approve of, or engage in behavior it believes to be wrong. When a society teaches people that prenatal lives don’t matter, they devalue post-natal lives as well. All lives matter to the risen Jesus, including yours! You can trust His voice of mercy and hope in your heart to heal, comfort, and restore you. Christ’s still small inner voice isn’t your imagination. It’s real! Confirm it by what the Bible says and let it flood you with encouragement.

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