Encouragement

Hi how are you all? I am a bit late writing this post as I had a writer’s conference on the weekend then a 50th wedding anniversary party for a friend. It was quite busy. Are your weekends busy or slow paced?

This week I just want to offer us all some encouragement. In the times we live in and with time going so fast, it seems like encouraging people is far down on our priority list. Jesus told us to love others but oftentimes task trumps people. We have a to do list not a to love list. All of us fall into the same trap.

For those who are writers or bloggers, this is my encouragement to you. Psalm 45:1 in the NIV Bible states:

My heart is stirred by a noble theme
as I recite my verses for the king;
my tongue is the pen of a skillful writer.

For us writers, I want to encourage you to seek God to stir your heart with the writing ideas and themes that He wants you to write. The second part of that verse reminds us who we are writing for. It is for God. As a Christian writer, we don’t write for fame and fortune but solely our purpose is to bring glory and honour to God. To get Gods words out to the world so they can be healed, live better lives through navigating a fiction story or even a testimony and see the love of God through our words.

Let’s have a look at the next part of the verse. What is the pen of a skilful writer- our tongue. Our tongue has the power to write our own story or someone else’s. It has the power to preach words of healing and deliverance or words of condemnation and bondage.

In our writings we need to speak it out to see if our stories will bring life to people. What is life? A story around drawing people closer to Jesus. This can be fiction or non-fiction. A story to help set people free from addiction or bondage. This is us using our gifting for Jesus.

What about if you don’t write? Well our words are still powerful and I encourage you to use your words wisely. You are still writing stories with your speech.

Proverbs 18:21 in the Message Bible tells us:

Words kill, words give life;
they’re either poison or fruit—you choose.

This doesn’t mean they literally kill but we can kill someone’s story, passion, identity or worth. We need to be careful we are speaking words that bring life. This is why gossip is so bad. Gossip is generally telling or writing negative about a person. Gossip is generally not positive.

I want to leave you with an encouraging Psalm which is Psalm 37. God is with you always.

1 Don’t bother your head with braggarts or wish you could succeed like the wicked. 

2 In no time they’ll shrivel like grass clippings and wilt like cut flowers in the sun. 

3 Get insurance with God and do a good deed, settle down and stick to your last. 

4 Keep company with God, get in on the best.

5 Open up before God, keep nothing back; he’ll do whatever needs to be done: 

6 He’ll validate your life in the clear light of day and stamp you with approval at high noon. 

7 Quiet down before God, be prayerful before him. Don’t bother with those who climb the ladder, who elbow their way to the top. 

8 Bridle your anger, trash your wrath, cool your pipes – it only makes things worse. 

9 Before long the crooks will be bankrupt; God-investors will soon own the store. 

10 Before you know it, the wicked will have had it; you’ll stare at his once famous place and – nothing! 

11 Down-to-earth people will move in and take over, relishing a huge bonanza. 

12 Bad guys have it in for the good guys, obsessed with doing them in. 

13 But God isn’t losing any sleep; to him they’re a joke with no punch line. 

14 Bullies brandish their swords, pull back on their bows with a flourish. They’re out to beat up on the harmless, or mug that nice man out walking his dog. 

15 A banana peel lands them flat on their faces – slapstick figures in a moral circus. 

16 Less is more and more is less. One righteous will outclass fifty wicked, 

17 For the wicked are moral weaklings but the righteous are God-strong. 

18 God keeps track of the decent folk; what they do won’t soon be forgotten. 

19 In hard times, they’ll hold their heads high; when the shelves are bare, they’ll be full. 

20 God-despisers have had it; God’s enemies are finished – Stripped bare like vineyards at harvest time, vanished like smoke in thin air. 

21 Wicked borrows and never returns; Righteous gives and gives. 

22 Generous gets it all in the end; Stingy is cut off at the pass. 

23 Stalwart walks in step with God; his path blazed by God, he’s happy. 

24 If he stumbles, he’s not down for long; God has a grip on his hand. 

25 I once was young, now I’m a graybeard – not once have I seen an abandoned believer, or his kids out roaming the streets. 

26 Every day he’s out giving and lending, his children making him proud. 

27 Turn your back on evil, work for the good and don’t quit. 

28 God loves this kind of thing, never turns away from his friends. Live this way and you’ve got it made, but bad eggs will be tossed out. 

29 The good get planted on good land and put down healthy roots. 

30 Righteous chews on wisdom like a dog on a bone, rolls virtue around on his tongue. 

31 His heart pumps God’s Word like blood through his veins; his feet are as sure as a cat’s. 

32 Wicked sets a watch for Righteous, he’s out for the kill. 

33 God, alert, is also on watch – Wicked won’t hurt a hair of his head. 

34 Wait passionately for God, don’t leave the path. He’ll give you your place in the sun while you watch the wicked lose it. 

35 I saw Wicked bloated like a toad, croaking pretentious nonsense. 

36 The next time I looked there was nothing – a punctured bladder, vapid and limp. 

37 Keep your eye on the healthy soul, scrutinize the straight life; There’s a future in strenuous wholeness. 

38 But the willful will soon be discarded; insolent souls are on a dead-end street. 

39 The spacious, free life is from God, it’s also protected and safe. 

40 God-strengthened, we’re delivered from evil – when we run to him, he saves us.

Bless you heaps and keep living the life God intended for you.

Bless you

Karen