Caring: Encouragement During Challenging Times
Carers give a lot of encouragement to those in their care. To mark Carers Week, we bring you excerpts from one of our favourite writer’s work.
When we are encouraged, it is oxygen for the soul. David encouraged himself in the Lord after his family and those if his men were captured. His men wanted to stone him as a result. We are encouraged to be content with the things we have as God is with us and will not forsake us. When we acknowledge that we do not achieve things in our own strength but by the grace of God through His ability, this makes it easier to be encouraged during challenging times.
Scripture for Meditation
Psalm 23:4 (Holman Christian Standard Bible)
Even when I go through the darkest valley, I fear no danger, for You are with me; Your rod and Your staff – they comfort me
2 Corinthians 4:7-9,17,18
But we have this treasure in earthen vessels, that the excellence of the power may be of God and not of us. We are hard-pressed on every side, yet not crushed; we are perplexed, but not in despair; persecuted, but not forsaken; struck down, but not destroyed – always carrying about in the body the dying of the Lord Jesus, that the life of Jesus also may be manifested on our body.
For our light affliction , which is for a moment, is working for us a far more exceeding and eternal weight of glory, while we do not look at the things which are seen, at at the things which are not seen. For the things which are seen are temporary, but the things which are not seen are eternal.
Confession
I cast all my cares upon God for He cares for me. My heart is untroubled for my trust is in God. He keeps me in perfect peace, as my mind is stayed on Him. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort. He comforts me in my tribulations, that I may be able to comfort those who are in trouble, with the comfort with which I myself am comforted by God.
I refuse to be discouraged. I encourage myself in the Lord knowing that God is watching over me. He has even numbered the hairs on my head. That shows that He intimately cares for me. That shows how valuable I am to my Father. He is the Alpha and the Omega, the beginning and the end. My future is already known to Him. I am safeguarded by His eternal Word.
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