Encourage Yourself!

Yesterday I talked about encouraging others. Today I’m talking about you encouraging you!

Yes, we can and many times will have to encourage ourselves. There will be times you have to stand alone. Others will not be there for you. They will not see what you see. They will not have your vision, your principles or motivation. You will have to hold the line by yourself. Take courage! This will build fortitude (another word for strength) so you can go further, become stronger, last longer, endure more – (that doesn’t sound fun, it sounds like hardship involved!!!)

We’ll have to chew our own meat – no ground up baby food involved. But I’ve heard it said meat is for the strong. No carnivore diet spoken of intentionally here, but meat makes strong muscles and we’ll need them to weather our storms, mental, emotional, spiritual and physical.

So, you had the idea to build the first lighthouse at sea alerting ships to steer clear and not get dashed to pieces in the dark. ‘How are you going to do that’, somebody said. ‘You can’t, the surf is too strong, water too deep, tide comes in, you’ll get washed out’… and on and on.

Yet! Somebody kept at it. They planned and planned and thought and thought and tried and finally the first successful one was built and saved many lives. ‘I could never do that!’ Maybe not your area of expertise, but there is something that you and you alone can and need to do. You – yes you – plan and think and try things out until you succeed. Begin to encourage yourself more!

Now back to the lighthouse. No one built it completely by themselves, but there had to be an idea, maybe guarded at first until it could develop and ‘build up steam’, and then others became involved. It began with them.

Today I am not giving up on my plan, thought, dream to ….

Live and Be Strong!

Random thoughts on this beautiful Sunday morning…

Because some have died doesn’t mean I can’t live.

Because some are sick doesn’t mean I can’t be well.

Because some are poor doesn’t mean I can’t have abundance.

How are the weak to be helped if there are no strong?

How can the strong stay strong if they give up their strength feeling guilty using it because another might not have strength?

Must everyone who has anything feel they must give it up and give to another who isn’t there yet?

How can we be givers if we have nothing to give. How can we help the weak if we are only weak ourselves?

I believe God wants us to live, to be strong, and to increase….so from our abundance we will have enough to help others.

What area in my life can I strengthen or live better in today?

The Peoples’ God

God is the peoples’ God.

He is not a God of dignitaries, kings and religious institutions that you must belong to or become before you can reach Him. He is a God of the common folk, the ordinaries, like you and me.

He loves to show Himself strong, and how can His strength be best shown except when compared to the weak? God is our, your, my strength-a very present help in time of trouble. And we seem to have a lot of trouble lurking around in our lives sometimes, don’t we?

He is the God of the ordinary people.

He is for the people.

We are His people and the sheep of His pasture.

All of us.

All who believe.

Which means:

If you’re ordinary, you qualify—

You qualify for all God has stated in His word.

They shall be My people, and I will be their God. Hebrews 8:11