Category Archives: Encouragement

Encouragement

Jonah in the Bible

Jonah – When God speaks, He eventually gets His way.

Jonah was commissioned by God to go to Nineveh to preach and teach there, and to bring the people of that city to the Lord. We might tend to think Jonah should be able to go wherever he wanted to go, but that is not a principle taught in the Bible.  Jonah decided to go in a direction completely opposite the direction the Lord wanted him to go. Jonah did not want to go to Nineveh because he knew the people in that city were very cruel. Jonah feared that if they didn’t accept the message God had for them they might persecute or even kill him. We can understand why he wouldn’t want to go there!

We read that Jonah went out from the presence of the Lord. He turned his back on the Lord and went his own way!  Jonah took passage on a ship to go where he wanted to go.  Eventually they found themselves in the middle of a ferocious storm and the people on the boat learned that Jonah wasn’t doing what his God told him to do. Jonah knew this storm was a direct result his disobedience to the Lord, so he directed them to throw him overboard.  He saw that as the only chance of saving the ship and crew. What happened next seems rather strange to some people but it says God prepared a fish.  Some say it was a whale but the Bible doesn’t really say that.  It was a big fish.  This big fish swallowed Jonah, and he was in the belly of this fish for three days.  That is a brief summary of Jonah chapter one.

In chapter 2, we find Jonah in the belly of this big fish. He begins to pray and cry out to God?  Why?  He is in a big predicament and he doesn’t know if it will be life or death for him.  Jonah eventually prays and God delivers him. This fish spits him out on the shore.

In Jonah 3 it says that God spoke again to Jonah. In other words, God didn’t give-up on Jonah. He still wanted Jonah to fulfill the original intention, purpose or burden that God had for him. God again asked Jonah to go to Nineveh, the city He had originally commissioned him to go to. Eventually Jonah obeys, goes to that city and preaches, and as a result those people turned away from their unrighteousness and to God.

What is the simple principle we can learn from the story of Jonah?  When God speaks, eventually God gets His way.  If we don’t follow or go along with the Lord, He will sometimes allow something to happen that will bring God to our attention. In Jonah’s case, he spent three days in the belly of a big fish. There are two other examples in the Bible of people who went their own way and did their own thing and eventually got into trouble. Don’t forget, eventually God gets His way. 

The video this text is taken from is being uploaded to  Drew’s YouTube channel.

Anxiety vs Good

In this passage one person choose to worry and be anxious, the other to stop and listen to Jesus and what He is speaking.   It is hard to stop what we are doing and just listen. Just to stop and listen to Jesus is the good portion that Mary choose.

Luke 10:41-42 but the Lord answered her, “Martha, Martha, you are anxious and troubled about many things, 42 but one thing is necessary. Mary has chosen the good portion, which will not be taken away from her.”

What is Christian Burnout?

We think burnout is what happens to others, but we actually all go through it at some point in our life.  Sometimes it manifests itself as just frustration or constantly being tired or run-down.

Burnout happens when we are pulled in directions the Lord is not leading. God only emotionally “funds” the directions He is doing. The other directions and projects are on our energy, and we quickly run out. So find out what He is doing.   It’s easy to get or be involved in some work for the Lord that has grown and been blessed by the Lord, but somehow the Lord has moved on or is just not doing it anymore.  Yet we contine on and are faithful, yet sometimes we are not sensitive to the Lord’s change in direction.

So we need to learn how to pray “Lord, what are you doing?”, and then be sensitive enough to listen to what He is saying.

Sometimes saying “no” is hard to do.  Sometimes we just need to finish something we started even though it may seem difficult.

Acts 16:7 And when they had come up to Mysia, they attempted to go into Bithynia, but the Spirit of Jesus did not allow them.  From Hebrews 12 “…active persistence the appointed course of the race that is set before us,”    Sometimes God is holding back and sometimes He is moving forward, can we listen to what He is saying.

Prayer to be Holy in Christ

It has been my continual prayer that God might use what is written to increase in His children the conviction that we must be holy, the knowledge of how we are to be holy, the joy that we may be holy, the faith that we can be holy. And may He stir us all to cry day and night to Him for a visitation of the Spirit and the Power of Holiness upon all His people, that the name of Christian and of saint may be synonymous, and every believer be a vessel made holy and meet for the Master’s use. — from the preface to “Holy in Christ” by Andrew Murray.

When we are Low, the Lord is our Strength

10 Then he said to them, “Go and eat what is rich, drink what is sweet, and send portions to those who have nothing prepared, since today is holy to our Lord. Do not grieve, because the joy of the Lord is your stronghold.”  Nehemiah 8:10  — this is something to remember when something in our day pulls us down.  It seems every day there is something to effect us, so remember the joy of the Lord is our encouragement.

Christ comes from Letting Go!

Notice the word “loss” and what Paul gained. Paul gained Christ. Each loss is pared with Christ.

Philippians 3:7-8 But whatever gain I had, I counted as loss for the sake of Christ. 8 Indeed, I count everything as loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord. For his sake I have suffered the loss of all things and count them as rubbish, in order that I may gain Christ

Things Going Wrong?

Things in our lives may seem to be going funny (all wrong), but God understands our circumstances better than we do.  Jesus in John 14 says:   1“Let not your heart be troubled; you believe in God, believe also in Me.”  Here is the secret, just lean on  Jesus and let Him…