InTouch July 2023

Dear Friends,
 
When life is tiring, when family members are not saved, when bills are not being paid, when work is exhausting, when your health is failing, when your loved ones are hurt and when good friends leave, it’s very easy to be discouraged.

Discouragement is a thief. It steals your zeal, your joy, your peace and your contentment. If discouragement dwells long with you, its names will join. Its names are fatigue, despair, self-pity, depression, doubt and bitterness.

Someone once put it like this: “Discouragement is dis-satisfaction with the past, distaste for the present, and distrust for the future.” The problem with discouragement is that it can make us blind, even blaming others for not doing enough to find out what’s causing them discouragement, or just blaming others for one’s discouragement. This is where the devil creeps in, and feeds on the mind, leading to discontentment.

The Bible’s answer is always the same: “Let us fix our eyes on Jesus, the author and finisher of our faith”.

The apostle Paul says in 2. Corinthians 1.3 that, “God is the Father of compassion and comfort.” He is the author and the source of all comfort, therefore only in him do we find peace and encouragement.

So how do we receive that comfort? It’s by faith. Yes, God can and does use his people to bring encouragement. He uses the ministry of His word, but trusting and believing is the beginning of comfort.

Through the reading and hearing of His word, being accompanied by the Holy Spirit is the answer to discontent.

Encouragement is something that belongs to you as a Christian. We have the word of God to teach us. We have the indwelling of the Holy Spirit to warm our souls. We have the God of encouragement waiting to show us his mercy, so let us run the race with perseverance; the race marked out for us.

Yours,
​
Pastor.