Underlined for emphasis, mine.
Recently I had two friends tell me within a brief period of time, that their faith was waning. Wow, what a sad thing to hear. They both are going through hard things in their life. I have been through extremely hard things in my life too. So naturally, I wanted to encourage them. When your friend tells you something like this, you want to help. But what do you say to people to encourage them? Yes, this life is so hard, and this world is full of evil things. That is why we need to encourage each other. But if we want to encourage someone else when they are going through a rough time, then we need to be ready to deal with our own rough times. First, let’s talk about how to do that.
How can we be ready for hardships? In John 16:33 Jesus said, “In this world, you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world.” My husband has a saying, “Don’t doubt in the darkness, what you knew to be true in the light.” So, if we build our faith by regularly spending quiet time with God and read his word, the more we will learn about his character. The more we know about God’s character, the stronger we will be when the storms of life hit. God’s character shows him to be faithful, merciful, trustworthy, kind, loving, and all-knowing. Then we can remember that he has always been here in the day, and he will always be there in the dark. He will help you through the dark, tough times, if you hold on to your courage and the hope you have in him.
If you have a hard, bad memory from the past, try picturing it in your mind with Jesus standing there with tears coming out of his eyes. He could have stopped whatever happened, but he also could have stopped the men who were whipping his back with whips that had metal spikes. He chose to go to the cross for us. He let the man do it because that man chose to turn away from God. It is not because God doesn’t care. God hates sin. God will judge those who turn away, but Jesus went to the cross for us so that we could spend eternity in heaven with him. Jesus went through hardship too. NIV Hebrews 12:3 says, “consider him who endured such opposition from sinful men, so that you will not grow weary and lose heart.” Unfortunately in this life, we will all eventually have something hard that we will have to deal with. We can grow weary in this world, but try not to loose heart. God loves us! Hebrews 12: 7 says, “Endure hardships as discipline, God is treating you as sons. For what son is not disciplined by his father?” Hebrews 12:10 “They disciplined us for a little while as they thought best, but God disciplines us for our good, in order that we may share in His Holiness.” Yes, we will suffer in this world, but we have heaven to look forward to, where we will share in his holiness.
We, as Christians are looking forward to life in heaven, this is why we try to live our lives in a way pleasing to God. So, when hardships come, it will help us to remember the things we are looking forward to. NIV Revelations 21:4 says, “He will wipe away every tear from their eyes. There will be no more death or mourning or crying or pain, for the old order of things has passed away.” Revelations 21:21 says, “The gates were twelve pearls, each gate made of a single Pearl. The great street of the city was of gold, as pure as transparent glass.” Revelations 21:11, “It shone with the glory of God and its brilliance was like that of a very precious jewel, like Jasper, clear as crystal.” Revelations 21:23, “The city does not need the sun or the moon to shine on it, for the glory of God gives it light, and the lamb is its lamp.” Heaven is a beautiful place of peace with no tears, no pain, no crying, no death, no more hardships! I personally am looking forward to going there.
But for now, while we are here, we should encourage each other. It can be so easy to concentrate on everything that is going on in our own life, that we don’t take the time to be there for others. If anyone has ever encouraged you when you were discouraged, then you know how good it felt and how much it helped. I know I have, so I want to do the same for others. But it is not easy to push yourself when you’re tired, or have a long list of things to do, to go out of your way for someone else. But as Christians we are a body, we all need each other. God never intended for us to do life alone.
The Good Samaritan took time to help the injured man, he spent some of his own money to care for him. Everywhere we look there is pain. I don’t have all the answers, but if we can keep our eyes and ears open to the needs of those around us, we may be able to help in ways that have a bigger impact than we realize. A “I was thinking of you” card, can brighten someone’s day incredibly. NIV Proverbs 25:11 says, “A word fitly spoken is like apples of gold in a setting of silver.” So, give that compliment, send that note, make that phone call. Maybe help with someone’s yard work, or help someone with cleaning, or bring some extra groceries, or a financial gift to someone in need. Encourage someone today by taking time to listen to them, using eye contact, without multi-tasking, just listening. Turn off the TV, pick up a pen and write an encouraging note to someone or just call to ask, “how are you doing today?” You never know the true impact you may have on someone’s life. You may be the only “Jesus” they meet. NIV Matthew 10:42 says, “If anyone gives even a cup of cold water to one of these little ones who is my disciple, truly I tell you, that person will certainly not lose their reward.” Whatever you do in His name for someone else, will be remembered by them for a long time, but more importantly, it will be remembered by our Lord Jesus for eternity. It may have such a huge impact on them, that it could be the moment that makes all the difference in their life. You may never know until you get to heaven, but when you find out, won’t you be glad you took the time to do it?
