Encouragement

We live in a time where encouragement is truly needed.  There are hurting people all around us that could use a word of encouragement.  This is important for the church and also for the un-churched.  The people that seem to have it altogether are the ones that may need it the most.

God’s Word says this in Hebrews 10:23-25, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for He who promised is faithful. And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Anyone that knows anything about the end times and is familiar with what God’s Word says about it, understands that we are in the last part of the last days and things will, and are, getting harder and harder and it is getting more difficult to serve the Lord.  

It says this in Revelations 12:7-12, “And war broke out in heaven: Michael and his angels fought with the dragon; and the dragon and his angels fought, but they did not prevail, nor was a place found for them in heaven any longer. So the great dragon was cast out, that serpent of old, called the Devil and Satan, who deceives the whole world; he was cast to the earth, and his angels were cast out with him.

Then I heard a loud voice saying in heaven, ‘Now salvation, and strength, and the kingdom of our God, and the power of His Christ have come, for the accuser of our brethren, who accused them before our God day and night, has been cast down. And they overcame him by the blood of the Lamb and by the word of their testimony, and they did not love their lives to the death. Therefore rejoice, O heavens, and you who dwell in them! Woe to the inhabitants of the earth and the sea! For the devil has come down to you, having great wrath, because he knows that he has a short time.’”

As the world yields to the evil one’s deception and believes the lies that he perpetrates in their minds and they carry out his devices and schemes, life may seem unbearable at times; and as the persecution grows more extreme and the believer’s rights are taken away more and more, the believers will need to be built up and encouraged by one another to a greater degree.  No one likes the thought of persecution, but one of the things it will do is separate the true believers from the false ones.

God’s Word says that we are to rejoice in sufferings, if you suffer according to the will of God.  Read what it says in 1 Peter 4:12-19, “Beloved, do not think it strange concerning the fiery trial which is to try you, as though some strange thing happened to you; but rejoice to the extent that you partake of Christ’s sufferings, that when His glory is revealed, you may also be glad with exceeding joy. If you are reproached for the name of Christ, blessed are you, for the Spirit of glory and of God rests upon you. On their part He is blasphemed, but on your part He is glorified. But let none of you suffer as a murderer, a thief, an evildoer, or as a busybody in other people’s matters. Yet if anyone suffers as a Christian, let him not be ashamed, but let him glorify God in this matter.

For the time has come for judgment to begin at the house of God; and if it begins with us first, what will be the end of those who do not obey the gospel of God? Now ‘If the righteous one is scarcely saved, where will the ungodly and the sinner appear?’

Therefore let those who suffer according to the will of God commit their souls to Him in doing good, as to a faithful Creator.”

Let me encourage you with these words; when Jesus was crucified, died, was buried and rose again, He accomplished everything He came here to do including the fate of the evil one.  The enemy has been thrown out of heaven, along with a third of the angels and they are causing havoc here on earth.  Jesus spoke in God’s Word about what it would be like in the 21st chapter of Luke and other places in the Word, if you would like to read them. 

Every true believer can rejoice, for our redemption draweth nigh, praise the Lord.  Read these words in Luke 21:28, “Now when these things begin to happen, look up and lift up your heads, because your redemption draws near.”

Jesus also talked about watching and praying in verses 35-36, “For it will come as a snare on all those who dwell on the face of the whole earth. Watch therefore, and pray always that you may be counted worthy to escape all these things that will come to pass, and to stand before the Son of Man.”

The evil one has been defeated and if we continue in the faith we will dwell in the house of the Lord forever.  Death and the grave will not be able to hold us any more than it could Jesus, we will be heaven bound to be with our Savior.  I hope this will encourage every believer to press on, never give up and endure to the end.  May God bless you and yours and may you all have a super day.