Category: Weekly Word of Encouragement

Do you ever feel like you want some close spiritual friends you can take off your mask with and open up to? Are you feeling a hole in your spiritual life where spiritual friends should be? We were designed to have close spiritual friends in mutually edifying relationships where we can reveal our true selves and be channels of God’s grace. The New Testament refers to this as fellowship; the Greek word is koinonia, which literally means participation. What does the New Testament teach about fellowship? One of the principles we observe in the Apostle Paul’s life is that we should support one another, especially in troubled times. This is stated plainly in Galatians 5:2: “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ” (ESV). This implies that we actually let other people know what our burdens are! Think about how often we don’t do this. How often do Continue Reading →

“Oh, taste and see that the Lord is good!” Psalms 34:8 (ESV). When we taste God we find sweetness for our souls. The word “good” might be the best word to describe God’s nature. What does it mean to be good? Here are a couple of definitions from biblical resources. Strong’s dictionary uses these words to define it: beautiful, best, better, bountiful, cheerful, fine, glad, graciously, joyful, kindly, kindness, loving, merry, pleasant, precious, sweet. The Brown Driver Briggs Hebrew dictionary uses these words to define good: kind, acceptable, joyful, vigorous, be pleasant, delightful, delicious, sweet or savoury. These words do a great job of describing God. This is what we “bite” into when we taste God. We also find this idea in 2 Pet. 1:3 which says that we are partakers of the divine nature. The Lord’s Supper is an experience of tasting the good flesh and blood of Christ. Continue Reading →

Those who look to him are radiant, and their faces shall never be ashamed. Psalms 34:5 (NIV). Those who keep their gaze on the Lord will find that their lives will shine with the Lord’s radiance. In other words, we shine our light, reflect God’s beautiful light, when we keep our focus on him. This is a privilege he gives to his people. We find a vivid illustration of this gift in the life of Moses. When he went up on Mt. Sinai and beheld the Lord, his face began to shine so much that when he came back down the people were afraid of the radiance (Exodus 34:30) so he ended up putting a veil over his face. 2 Corinthians 3:18 draws on this story and explains that believers “with unveiled face, beholding the glory of the Lord, are being transformed into the same image from one degree of Continue Reading →

But the eyes of the Lord are on those who fear him,on those whose hope is in his unfailing love,Psalms 33:18 (NIV) Being invisible, we often wonder what God is doing around us. We hope that we are pleasing him. We hope that he is looking down on us with approval and keeping a watch on our lives. This verse promises that if you fear him (respect his divine power) and hope in his love, then the eyes of the Lord are on you. We might know this in our head, but it is important to meditate on it until it becomes a living reality in our hearts. The eyes of the Lord are on you as you read this. His attention is focused on you. This may not be so hard to believe during periods of our life when we can easily feel his presence. But are we willing Continue Reading →

The Lord’s unfailing love surrounds the one who trusts in him, (Psalms 32:10, NIV). We have many challenges to faith in God in our lives. We are constantly tempted to worry instead of trust. We are constantly tempted to fix problems on our own because we do not want to entrust them to God and let his words guide us. We are tempted to shade the truth and deny the truth about ourselves. In short, we are tempted to live in fear and self-reliance instead of living surrounded by God’s love. This passage promises us that we are surrounded by God’s love when we trust in him. What is more secure and comforting than that? True, we can’t see him, and we don’t hear his audible voice telling us that he loves us and will work all things together for good. But we do have his promises. So it is Continue Reading →