Encouraging Words Devotional

Do You Feel Worthless or Unloved?

I'm stunned by how much God loves us--no, actually I'm stunned by how much God loves me, especially on those days when I can't seem to do anything right and I feel so unlovable. Mornings when I stay in my pajamas until noon. Days when I resent being interrupted to help someone else. Evenings when I stay up too late doing "whatever" on my laptop or phone.

What To Do When You Feel Like Giving Up

Asaph was discouraged--so discouraged, in fact, that he had about given up on God. In Psalm 77, Asaph asks five questions that convey the despair he was feeling: "Will the Lord spurn forever, and never again be favorable? Has his steadfast love forever ceased? Are his promises at an end for all time? Has God forgotten to be gracious? Has he in anger shut up his compassion?" (Psalm 77:7-9). Asaph tells us he cried aloud and couldn't sleep. He was in a bad way!

Do You Feel Overloaded?

When I crawl in bed at night, sometimes my mind doesn't want to turn off--like a computer that has too many files open at the same time. The houseguests who are coming this weekend, the latest terrible shooting on the news, packing for an upcoming trip, the phone call from a friend whose son is at the point of death, a list for shopping that needs to be done first thing tomorrow morning. My mind flits from one to another. Oh, no, they're not all bad thoughts. It's just that there are so many of them.

Why Should I Learn How To Forgive?

My friend Dr. Richard Smith tells of counseling a woman who had been gang raped as a teen. Although she was a believer and said she had forgiven the men, years later the trauma still haunted her.

Start Building Character In Your Kids

Do bedtime stories really matter? I mean, does it make any difference in the life of your kids whether or not at the end of the day you take the time to read them a story? ISIS thinks so. Islamic State has recently published a guidebook instructing mothers to tell their children bedtime stories about--get this, martyrdom and heroic jihadists.^[1] When I read that, it made me shudder.

 

^[1] Ammar Al Shamary and Gilgamesh Nabeel, USA Today, "Islamic State's New Killers," March 12, 2015, p. 1.

What Is God’s Purpose For Me?

She flipped over the page of the calendar. The new page--February--stared back at her, decorated with its lacey hearts and pink roses. Valentine's Day? Love? Even though she was still in her late teens, she could not relate. In her despair, instead of going downstairs for a drink, she turned to her computer to reach out to a voice she had heard on a Christian radio program: "Guidelines, A Five-minute Commentary on Living." She wrote,

Walk Step By Step With God

My friend Sonya Goodson posted this on her Facebook page: "I have crossed many bridges that I never came to . . . ."

Start Casting Your Anxieties On God

Here's a thought that challenges me: "Prayer is bringing your wishes and worries to God; faith is leaving them there."[1] The "prayer" part is easy, but the "faith" part--that is, leaving our worries with God, is quite another matter, right?

 

[1] http://goo.gl/8qr7z3, accessed 7-27-2016.

What Should I Do Next?

"Just do the next thing" was the advice author Elisabeth Elliot gave to her daughter, Valerie, when she called on the phone one morning at a point of desperation. Homeschooling her eight children, Valerie had reached the end of her resources. "What do I do, Mom? I just can't go on."

How To Keep Your Focus on God

Sometimes when you open Facebook Notifications on your phone or computer, you see a face you've never seen before--that is, until you glance at the name and realize it's someone you know well. The person has simply posted a new Profile picture--and you didn't immediately recognize who it is. Chances are it's a girlfriend of yours who has taken a new selfie in a stylish pose that she thinks makes her look prettier than the previous shot did. Come on, let's be honest: who ever posts an ugly picture of herself on Facebook?