I was reminded of this beautiful truth by a wonderful bowl given to me by an amazing group of women in our Bible study--
Now that's a good work, don't you think?
Rather than pondering all the ways someone is irritating you....or the times they've failed to come through...or all the ways they need to improve (in your humble opinion), how about thinking about, pondering, and considering all the ways you can build them up, love them, and encourage them to be God's very best?
Oh boy, don't we need each other? Don't we need one another when our strength is flagging, our joy is leaking, and our hope is disappearing? Don't we need to encourage one another in the Lord? Don't we need to exhort each other--"Don't quit! Keep running the race by faith! (Heb.12:1-3) Keep persevering! Look to Jesus, lean on Jesus, love Jesus--He is mighty to save, ready to move, and able to do abundantly more than all you could ask or imagine. (Eph.3:20) The finish line is in sight--so keep running!"
How grateful I am for the priceless gift of family, friends, and sisters and brothers in Christ. How often these irreplaceable, beautiful people in my life have showered me with grace, with love, with forgiveness, with hope, with joy. And I want to be someone who encourages them as well. Oh Lord, please make me an instrument of grace, encouragement, and strength to others!
I love the words of Isaiah 50:4--"The Lord God has given me the tongue of those who are taught, that I may how to sustain with a word him who is weary. Morning by morning He awakens; He awakens my ear to hear as those who are taught."
That's what I pray my words--whether written or spoken--do for others: "sustain with a word him who is weary."
Isn't that what we all need? Sometimes life can be so hard. So wearisome. So downright discouraging. And what we all desperately require is a sustaining word. A strengthening word. An encouraging word. A loving word.
Translation?--what we all really need is a word from the Word. We need the Living Word--the Lord Jesus--and we need His written Word. We don't need more expert advice. We don't need more spin from pundits. We don't need self-improvement jargon. We don't need empty, meaningless drivel.
Nope--we need the Living Word Who is our sustenance, and we need His written and spoken Word that sustains. And we--you, me, the Body of Believers--need to be the men and women who share that life-giving, life-sustaining Word.
In the words of a powerful song by Casting Crowns: Jesus, Friend of Sinners--"Nobody knows what we're for only what we're against when we judge the wounded. What if we put down our signs crossed over the lines and loved like You did...You love every lost cause; You reach for the outcast. For the leper and the lame; they're the reason that You came. Lord I was that lost cause and I was the outcast. But You died for sinners just like me, a grateful leper at Your feet. 'Cause You are good, You are good and Your love endures forever..."
Yep, that pretty much sums it up--I was that lost cause. I was and am that grateful leper at His feet. He died for sinners such as me...and you. Because He is good--so so good--and so loving, so wise, so powerful, so holy, and so full of grace and mercy.
What gloriously great news! How dare we not share it with a lost and dying world? And how dare we miss the opportunity--any and every opportunity--to encourage our family and friends with a sustaining word?
Thank You, Lord, for Your Word. Thank You for all the myriad ways You sustain and strengthen us every single day. Oh Lord Jesus, thank You thank You thank You for Who You are, for all You have done, and for all You are doing in our lives and in our world. Help us, teach us, enable us to be vehicles of Your sustaining mercy, grace and love to those around us.
Today, today, let's share a sustaining word with someone God puts in our path.
To God be the glory.
No comments:
Post a Comment