Giving REAL Courage - Encouragement Part 2 by Jim Wine

All of us need encouragement to navigate distresses and difficulties. We can’t do it alone. But, PLEASE don't give someone false encouragement. Give them the REAL thing!

Merriam Webster defines encouragement as “something that makes someone more determined, hopeful, or confident.”  Sounds good, right?  But let’s face it, the “something” that makes someone more hopeful could be the result of, say, deception or drugs.  This might provide short-term encouragement, but the long-term consequences might be devastating. So, Yes! We need encouragement, but it needs to be based on truth.

And that, my friend, is “the rub.”  TRUTH.  Encouragement is based on hope. And the definition of "hope" is the expectation of future good.  Or, as Webster says: “to expect with confidence.” How can we give true, confident  hope to people if we don’t know the future?

This is important.  I want you “get this”. Knowledge about the future can ONLY come from someone who knows the future.

And there is only One who truly knows the future: God.  If you understand this, then you will readily realize: True, reliable hope only comes from what God says.

And there is only ONE RELIABLE PLACE to know what God says: the Bible.

The issue must be clearly stated:

People are so hungry for encouragement and hope that they are automatically predisposed to receive it – even if it is based on mere opinion, deception, wishful thinking or mythology.  And, for some people, who have seen this form of false hope dished out so often, even in churches, they have become inoculated against even REAL encouragement. How sad for someone to reject REAL, living hope because they have been conditioned to distrust the encouragement that others offer. So let’s “get to it!”  What, actually, does God say that would encourage us, or give us hope?

What a question! The Bible is a literal gold mine of hope and encouragement!  You can almost poke it in any location and it will bleed with hope, encouragement, offers of life, renewal and grace. Consider these amazing, certain, and unambiguous statements by God for those who believe in Jesus:

Make sure that your character is free from the love of money, being content with what you have; for He Himself has said, “I will never desert you, nor will I ever forsake you,” Heb 13:5.
Please listen to what God says to His followers: “I will NEVER leave you or forsake you.” Do you feel forsaken? Do you feel alone? You are not!  “Forsake” means to abandon and leave someone without help or resources. As a believer in Jesus, you are never forsaken by Him. Never!  He is right there. Knowing you. Praying for you. Watching over you. God never forsakes His children. But that is not all…Jesus is preparing a place for your future:

“Do not let your heart be troubled; believe in God, believe also in Me. In My Father’s house are many dwelling places; if it were not so, I would have told you; for I go to prepare a place for you.  If I go and prepare a place for you, I will come again and receive you to Myself, that where I am, there you may be also,” John 14:1-3.
This clear statement about the future indicates without doubt that Jesus is preparing a place for those who believe in Him. And He WILL come again to receive His people. He also promises relationship: “Where I am, you may be also.” Imagine it: you will walk and talk with Jesus as a personal friend. Yes, He is your Lord and King, but He is your friend as well. Consider this amazing statement by Jesus regarding His return:

“Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them.” Luke 12:37.

What?! Are you kidding me?!  Is Jesus, the Lord of the universe going to serve those He loves when He comes?  Yes, He is.  These words are directly from His mouth, and He never lies. Have you considered recently the kindness and humility of the Master whom you love and serve? Have you considered how intimately aware He is of your current suffering?  Please remember that this Jesus who loves you has not forsaken you. He is with you. And not only that, He is preparing a future dwelling place so that you can be with Him forever.  And not only that, but He is determined to serve those “alert” servants who never stop watching and waiting. Look at the words underlined below:

“Be dressed in readiness, and keep your lamps lit. Be like men who are waiting for their master when he returns from the wedding feast, so that they may immediately open the door to him when he comes and knocks. Blessed are those slaves whom the master will find on the alert when he comes; truly I say to you, that he will gird himself to serve, and have them recline at the table, and will come up and wait on them. Whether he comes in the second watch, or even in the third, and finds them so, blessed are those slaves.

Listen. These verses make clear the connection between future HOPE and current ACTION.  Without hope, your action will not be appropriate. Why are the servants ready? Why will they be able to open the door “immediately?”  Because they know something about the future. They have hope: a confident expectation about the future. And so what do they do? They watch. They are ready. They keep their lamps lit. They don’t give up. They keep going against all odds. They persevere. They don’t lose heart. They are focused. They believe what God has said.

So…

My question for you: Do you believe what God says? If you do, your hope will be strengthened and you will have courage to continue. Please be encouraged. Your fight for hope really matters. Oh that you would meditate on God’s promises. There are so many! God bless you dear friend.

For further study. Here are some other wonderful statements in the Bible that I love. How wonderful is the future for those who trust in Jesus.

(Verses are from the NASB)
Therefore we do not lose heart, but though our outer man is decaying, yet our inner man is being renewed day by day. For momentary, light affliction is producing for us an eternal weight of glory far beyond all comparison, 2 Cor 4:16-17.

What then shall we say to these things? If God is for us, who is against us? 32 He who did not spare His own Son, but delivered Him over for us all, how will He not also with Him freely give us all things? 33 Who will bring a charge against God’s elect? God is the one who justifies; 34 who is the one who condemns? Christ Jesus is He who died, yes, rather who was raised, who is at the right hand of God, who also intercedes for us, Rom 8:31-34.

In the same way God, desiring even more to show to the heirs of the promise the unchangeableness of His purpose, interposed with an oath, so that by two unchangeable things in which it is impossible for God to lie, we who have taken refuge would have strong encouragement to take hold of the hope set before us. This hope we have as an anchor of the soul, a hope both sure and steadfast and one which enters within the veil,  Heb 6:17-19.

And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to His purpose. Rom 8:28.

Jesus said to her, “I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies, John 11:25.

Who will separate us from the love of Christ? Will tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Just as it is written, “For Your sake we are being put to death all day long; We were considered as sheep to be slaughtered.” But in all these things we overwhelmingly conquer through Him who loved us. For I am convinced that neither death, nor life, nor angels, nor principalities, nor things present, nor things to come, nor powers, nor height, nor depth, nor any other created thing, will be able to separate us from the love of God, which is in Christ Jesus our Lord. Rom 8:35-39.

Therefore, my beloved brethren, be steadfast, immovable, always abounding in the work of the Lord, knowing that your toil is not in vain in the Lord. 1 Cor 15:58.
Psalms 37:1-11 (words that indicate the future are underlined)
Do not fret because of evildoers,
Be not envious toward wrongdoers.
For they will wither quickly like the grass
And fade like the green herb.
Trust in the Lord and do good;
Dwell in the land and cultivate faithfulness.
Delight yourself in the Lord;
And He will give you the desires of your heart.
Commit your way to the Lord,
Trust also in Him, and He will do it.
He will bring forth your righteousness as the light
And your judgment as the noonday.
Rest in the Lord and wait patiently for Him;
Do not fret because of him who prospers in his way,
Because of the man who carries out wicked schemes.
Cease from anger and forsake wrath;
Do not fret; it leads only to evildoing.
For evildoers will be cut off,
But those who wait for the Lord, they will inherit the land.
Yet a little while and the wicked man will be no more;
And you will look carefully for his place and he will not be there.
But the humble will inherit the land
And will delight themselves in abundant prosperity.

All encouragement not based on God’s Word is an unsure foundation for the future.
On the other hand, God can never lie, and He knows every detail about the future.
If God said it, we can be confident that it will happen exactly as He has described.
He is watching. May we keep our hearts firmly rooted in biblical hope, and pass along REAL courage to others.

Hope And Fear Part 1 - Guest Writer Jim Wine

Fear and hope are similar, but opposite.

“Fear” is an expectation of future loss.

“Hope” is an expectation of future gain.

Since both of these are based on an expectation of the future, they are both based upon belief. What do you believe about the future?  This will determine whether you live in hope, fear, or just plain apathy.

Important: since no one can predict with certainty the future, both fear and hope can be extremely wrong or exactly correct.  The difficulty is in knowing whether your fear and/or hope are warranted. On what are they based? Truth or fiction?

Let’s face it: it is possible that both your fears and your hopes are both incorrect.  And, yes, it is possible that your fears and/or hopes are correct.

But how is one to know?  How can any person know with certainty what is going to happen in the future? This is certainly the key question. And there is an answer. Are you ready for it?

The answer is that there is only one being that knows the future. Only one. We call Him God. The Bible says that God knows every aspect of the future; every detail.  In fact, God knows so much about the future that it is impossible for Him to ever learn anything.  He simultaneously possesses all knowledge of everything that will be and everything that could be.  God can never be surprised. So, to say that “God knows the future” is an understatement. For God, in a sense, there is no “future” because all knowledge and all “futures” are immediately present in His mind. He never “recalls” anything. He never has to pause to try to remember anything. He doesn’t have long term memory storage. All knowledge is immediately present in His mind – and always has been – from long before time began.

At this point is ok to say “Wow!”  Truly God is amazing. He knows everything.  He never lies. He always tells the exact truth. And He is never wrong. Never. It is impossible for a being who has all knowledge and never lies to speak anything other than the exact truth. Even when He speaks about the future.

Now…back to “hope” and “fear.”  Remember that both of these are based upon an expectation of the future. Since we humans are often (if not usually) wrong in our predictions of the future, perhaps we should be a little more modest and humble in how much confidence we place in our hopes and fears. This is good advice, and we would be very wise to accept it – except for one great exception: sometimes God tells us what is going to happen in the future. Yes, that is correct!  God has recorded, in writing, some of the things that are going to transpire in the future. Since God can never lie, if we take the time to learn these things God has said about the future, then we can have appropriate levels of hope or fear, because such things will be based on the certainty of God’s promises. This is an amazing concept. And it is very personal to me. One quick story:

During the winter of 1988 I was sitting alone at night on the patio of our house in San Diego. I was thinking about the death of my daughter. Six months earlier I had witnessed her death in an automobile accident. I was alone and in pain. I had a feeling of such loss. Realizing that I would never see or hug or hold my dear sweet daughter again. That I would never see her smile or hear her laugh. The pain was like a giant wave. It overwhelmed me. I was buried beneath an unescapable expectation of eternal loss; The loss of my relationship with my daughter.

At that precise moment, I opened my Bible and read these words that Jesus the Son of God said in John 11:25

“I am the resurrection and the life; he who believes in Me will live even if he dies.”

Note that Jesus mentions something about the future.  He says “he who believes in Me will live – even if – he dies.” Someone who is a believer in Jesus; a Christian; someone who has placed their faith in Jesus’ sacrifice on the cross and walks in newness of life – this is the person about whom Jesus states this future fact.

Well, I knew without a doubt that my daughter believed in Jesus. She loved Him and prayed to Him and talked about Him. Her faith in Him was very real. So what was Jesus telling me about the future? Simply this: that I would, in fact, see my daughter again. That she would live again. That one day we would be reunited (because, you see, I am also a believer in Jesus!).

In that moment I believed what Jesus said. I realized that He spoke the exact truth about the future.

And I knew.

I knew that I would see my daughter again!

Poof. The fear was gone. The tidal wave of future expectation was blasted into oblivion. And in its place a certain joy began to blossom. A joy that has never left me. Because now I know something of what the future holds: the happy reunion with my daughter in the presence of Jesus. That is what we call “biblical hope” because it is based on the certain knowledge of God’s promise.

NOTE: grief and fear are different. Although my fear left me, my grief did not. The pain of present loss (grief) was still there and was very real. It still is. The fact is, that right now I do not have my daughter present with me, and the pain is still there.  The pain is reality. It cannot be called fear. Nor can it be called sin.  Grief and pain over actual loss are real. They are appropriate responses to suffering.

Right now, then, it is accurate to say that I have both grief and hope. But no fear. And the hope that I have encourages me to continue. This is wonderful!

But what exactly is “encouragement?”  How do we get it? And is it always correct? Is it possible to give false encouragement to others?  If so, how?

These questions will be considered in the next blog!  Until then, please try to find some things that God says about the future.  It is not hard!  Just look in the Bible! And may God bless you with great hope!