Stay Encouraged: Three Lessons to Learn

If you spent time praying for more encouragement in your life this week I’ve got wonderful news for you- here it is! I realize sometimes as Christians we’ve become forgetful of our initial moment of salvation and the preceding passionate months to years that follow. Sadly, for some of us we’re no longer fire-filled. In fact a study from a few years ago found that 55% of Christians haven't shared their faith with anyone within the last 6 months. We’ve lost our eagerness to find out the things of God, sit listening to Him in His Word and share this wild grace and love He shows us.

What does this have to do with encouragement? I believe far more than we realize! My prayer is after reading part of my experience and what I’ve learned from others recently will not only fill you with courage but fire up that first-love fervor for the Lord!

It’s a tall order. But we serve a God in the business of fulfilling tall orders!

My husband and I recently moved across the country for the second time in 4 years. This was our 8th move in 6.5 years. I mistakenly told someone the other day it was 6 moves. I actually forgot how many times we’ve moved! I share that because transitioning to all these different areas, relationships, jobs and churches has been wonderful, but exhausting. To be honest, I didn’t realize how tired I was until our last move back in June.

Something was weighing me down and I couldn’t shake a heaviness creeping in around the edges of my mind and heart. I began to wonder why I wasn’t myself. I had a few moments where I worried something might be wrong with me. I went to the doctor, had an exam and blood work done. I spoke with trusted friends. By all accounts, I was totally fine. Thank God, for sure! But while I had moments of lightness and I knew God was with me, there was a battle raging in my mind and heart.

I realized I needed more prayer coverage so I enlisted some prayer partners prayed together with these faithful warriors. Side note, if you don't have any praying friends, find some this week! By God's grace, I continued in Scripture faithfully. I continued praying honestly. The shift back into a normal space happened over a few weeks as I realized a few things. I pray my realization helps remind someone reading this of some of these truths as well.

1. We need to spend time simply being with the Lord. I was doing a lot for Him and thinking about Him, but I was not simply being with Him. I don’t mean that I didn’t pray or read my Bible. I mean I didn’t invite Him into as many moments as I thought of Him. This has been my practice since I read Brother Lawrence’s Practicing the Presence of God when I was 14. If you’ve never read this book I highly recommend it. The shortened version is this: each moment becomes an exquisitely wrapped gift we are presented to unwrap when we invite the Almighty God into it. This truth changes everything when we embrace it.
2. We need to keep our thoughts aligned, especially when we're tired. My thought-life had fallen out of alignment because of a series of challenging events. While I started strong in Christ dealing with them, after half a year, I was tired. I started to let some spiritual habits slip. I started allowing a few too many negative interactions to dictate my thought patterns. I noticed a critical nature seeping in and an ungrateful heart showcase itself. When I finally noticed this, my heart felt deep conviction.
3. God is all-powerful, we are (clearly) not, which mean we constantly need Him. I looked back and saw how God gave me grace in every other move to keep the rhythm and pace regardless of the circumstances. But this time He reminded me of a valuable lesson. I have a limit. My grandmother used to say “You can do a lot of things, but you can’t do them all at once.” I wasn’t allowing myself space to rest and be with the Lord. Once God reminded me this, I finally slowed down. When I say God showed me, I mean He shared the truth with me through Scripture, Christian friends and the warning bells in my body. Praise God for His Word, faithful friends and common graces like our body's built in alarm systems. Friend, let's remember God can speak to us through common things like exhaustion to remind us we're finite and we need rest! So I re-embraced healthy spiritual disciplines. Just like a healthy marriage need times of refreshing and remembrance, so too our relationship with God needs them as well. This all came with waves of refreshment and encouragement. With it, a renewed passion, purpose and energy flowed back into my life. Jesus told us this was the case, but we’re a forgetful people. He said “I am the vine you are the branches, unless you abide in me you won’t bear fruit” (John 15:4). We need this reminding just as much today as his disciples did 2,000 years ago.

So friends, I hope this encourages you! We'd love to know what God has brought you through lately! Let's testify to His goodness together! This week's memory verse is wonderful one to remind us to the fire alive for our first love. And as always, if you're joining us in this week's Scripture memory verse, happy memorizing!