A Good Word
A Ministry of Encouragement
editors
Julie Stephens
Sherryl Myrick
Proverbs 12:25
Anxiety weighs down the human heart, but a good word cheers it up.
i'm blessed
This lesson may be for you. Many times after I write and post a new lesson, I will receive a note from someone who will say, “Robby, this lesson was written for me!” I do believe that it’s not by coincidence that some lessons hit closer to home at times, because I’m often inspired to write a lesson of encouragement to a specific person in mind, dealing with a difficult period in life. Perhaps after you read this you will know if you were the person on my heart for this specific lesson.
I have just returned from a short weekend getaway to Savannah, Georgia, with my wife Julie. Early Sunday morning of this trip, I got up before the hotel was offering coffee. (That’s pretty early.) So I decided to go find a McDonald’s to buy a large cup and watch the sunrise on this early February morning. As I was sitting alone in the restaurant having my prayer time, I said, “Lord, use me today to encourage someone for Your glory.” Now this was not an unusual prayer request of mine, so I didn’t catch the Lord off guard with this one, but as soon as I finished with that prayer I thought to myself, “Now who could I possibly encourage on this trip out of town?”
The sun was just beginning to lighten up the view outside of the restaurant window, and I began to notice someone standing across the street in the cold February morning air. It was too dark to make out what they may be doing, but my interest was peaked to wonder why this individual was just standing there. In a couple of minutes the sky turned brighter, and I could tell that it was an older woman standing there with a newspaper in her hand. Next to her was a large stack of Sunday papers. My heart was moved, as I was thinking that this lady was probably trying to feed her family by selling newspapers one at a time on a cold street corner. I’m thinking, “How much can she possibly make, even if she were to sell the whole stack today?” How would one feel, making such little money this way in order to feed her family?
It was time to go back to my hotel, and I started across the parking lot toward my car. As I approached my vehicle, a “coincidental” thought came across my mind to go give this lady some money, without buying a paper. I stopped right there and turned to look at her. Immediately, the negative thoughts started working on me. My mind said, “It will be dangerous to cross that street,” and, “she will think you’re crazy,” and, “what will others think, watching you?” and, “she’ll just probably use the money to buy booze,” and many other negative reasons why not to do it. The negatives won over, so I got into my car and started toward the hotel. Then this thought occurred to me: “Robby, you just said a prayer to encourage someone, and this lady appears before you. Do you believe things just happen?”
I immediately drove my car around the corner in order to drive up next to her. I withdrew some money from my wallet, and grabbed one of my Good Word Ministry cards to give her, with the cash. I pulled up to her, and she approached with a paper in hand. I noticed a rugged and worn face, displaying the anticipation of a new sale. I said good morning and she returned the same words. I then asked, “How are you today?” I was surprised by her answer. Here it is a cold February morning, and she’s been standing outside already for at least thirty minutes without her first sale. She has a large stack of papers to go, so this will be a long day for her. She looks at me with a ruddy smile and says, “I'm blessed.” I handed her the money and card, and I said, “I was asked to give you this.” She didn’t know what to say, and I drove away as she looked down at my card. The card says “A Christian Ministry of Encouragement” on it. As I drove back toward the nice hotel, I’m thinking about her response. I personally have had some recent rough days at work, and I’ve had a few personal pity parties for myself, but I don’t have to go out into the cold each morning to sell newspapers. And here is a lady I’m feeling sorry for, and she tells me she’s blessed? I thought I was on a mission of encouragement, but I was the one encouraged!
I wonder why she thinks she is blessed? Why wouldn’t she be upset with the Lord for allowing her to have to work hard in this fashion? Didn’t she hear the TV preacher say the Lord wants us to be prosperous and happy? Have you gotten caught up in this thinking/teaching at all? If so, then your faith will crumble apart when a difficult trial comes your way. During my years in ministry, I’ve seen many instances of close personal Christ-loving friends, who at one time were very active in ministry themselves, but when a major trial comes their way, I don’t hear from them for months at a time. I know what happened. They start questioning their faith, and have not understood the apostle James when he writes: “Consider it pure joy, my brothers, whenever you face trials of many kinds, because you know that the testing of your faith develops perseverance. Perseverance must finish its work so that you may be mature and complete, not lacking anything” (James 1:2-4 NIV). The paper lady must have developed much more perseverance than I have.
In my Bible studies recently, I came across a passage that stood out to me differently than ever before. It’s a story that we’ve all read and know about, but there is a specific verse which I wish to point out to you. The story is found in the book of Exodus about Moses and the captive Jewish slaves serving under a tough Pharaoh. They were under a terrible burden, and they wished to be free from captivity. So Moses shows up and tells them about their God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob. He tells them the Lord has heard their cries for help, and they seem to believe Moses, because the Bible says, “And when they heard that the LORD was concerned about them and had seen their misery, they bowed down and worshiped” (Exodus 4:31). Now I ask you: Does this worship of the Lord end their troubles? No more difficult times now, since they seem to have placed their trust in the Lord, right? But wait . . . Why does the apostle James tell the “brothers,” who believe in Christ and have placed their trust in Christ about the trials that will test their faith? You may ask, “If I’ve finally decided to place my faith in Christ to lead and direct my paths, won’t things immediately get easier?” Well no, things may actually get more difficult in the beginning.
The Jewish people have now bowed down to worship the Lord, and they expect their difficult period to be over. But look what the enemy does; he makes things worse. (We do have an enemy working against us!) The Bible says Pharaoh directed the slave drivers: “You are no longer to supply the people with straw for making bricks . . . Make the work harder for the men so that they keep working and pay no attention to lies” (Exodus 5:7-9). This is the Bible verse I want you to understand. Pharaoh wanted to make their job so stressful that the people would forget about worshiping God. The enemy desires for you to always question the Truth as a book of lies. Remember that “serpent of old,” who gets Eve to question the Truth in the garden: “Did God really say, 'You must not eat from any tree in the garden?’" (Genesis 3:1). I know there is a strong Biblical warning to all of us by the words of Pharaoh above. I know personally that there are two things that will totally challenge MY relationship with the Lord: (One) The level of my relationship with my wife (1 Peter 3:7), and (Two) The level of importance I place on my work occupation. Are you working extra hard these difficult days? Has work been made harder so you will keep working and pay no attention to the Word? We have a tendency to focus more on work when we face difficulties in our finances and/or relationships. The correct answer to freedom from captivity is one letter difference: work or Word. Which have you chosen?
Work just became harder for the Jewish people, so there were two choices that could be made concerning their faith: Either believe that the Lord may be at work in the testing of their faith and to choose to develop perseverance and wait for the Lord to deliver, or get angry with God and just forget this “religious” thing because it didn’t work out like they wanted. Do things sometime seem to get harder when you choose to follow what you believe is the Lord’s will for your life? Do you quickly say in the difficulty, “God was not in it,” and give up? Perhaps it wasn’t God who “took your straw away.”
Let’s see if the Bible can teach us what we are supposed to do in this situation. Here’s what the Jewish people told Moses: “and they said, ‘May the LORD look upon you and judge you! You have made us a stench to Pharaoh and his officials and have put a sword in their hand to kill us" (Exodus 5:21). They were mad! This turning to God just made things worse in their narrow, worldly vision. Then Moses exclaims to them to have faith, and wait for the Lord to deliver. He tells them that the Lord says: “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke” (Exodus 6:6), but the Bible says, “they did not listen to him because of their discouragement and cruel bondage” (Exodus 6:9).
Today I ask: Are you discouraged and have a feeling of the captivity of your situation? I have personally lived through tough moments in time where I felt captive to my current environment. I would get depressed about my circumstances, and it would seem like Pharaoh “took away my straw” and all things around me just got harder. I would think, “I’ll just focus on work more and work harder, and just live to accept my current situation.” I’m certain that’s what the Jewish people did. But I ask, “Would this choice change their situation any?” So what should do you do? The answer is found in the parable of the Prodigal Son, found in Luke 15. In this parable of Jesus, a young man is living away from his father, and he chooses to work harder as a hired man because he is depressed about his circumstance. I ask, “Is this new work going to free him even if he chooses to work really hard?” No. “Can he fix the situation himself?” No. “So what does he do?” The Bible says, “he came to his senses” (Luke 15:17). He went back to his father. (The father represents God in the story.) We must come to our senses and turn our difficulties over to our Father, who says, “I am the LORD, and I will bring you out from under the yoke” (Exodus 6:6). Some may say here that the Lord was speaking to the Jewish people in that passage. OK, if you say so … but look at Matthew 11:28-30, “Come to me, all you who are weary and burdened, and I will give you rest. Take my yoke upon you and learn from me, for I am gentle and humble in heart, and you will find rest for your souls. For my yoke is easy and my burden is light." You and I are a part of “all you who.” When I get weary and burdened and finally come to my senses, I turn it over to the One who says, “I will give you rest.”
From now on, when I feel a little down about my situation, I’m going to think about that Savannah paper lady. She gets the verse where the apostle Paul tells us to: “Be joyful always; pray continually; give thanks in all circumstances, for this is God's will for you in Christ Jesus” (1 Thessalonians 5:16-18). She told me that she was blessed. I want you to feel this way too. So how do you get this blessing? Place your hope in the One who can give you help and hope: “Blessed is he whose help is the God of Jacob, whose hope is in the LORD his God” (Psalm 146:5).
Robby
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