Thursday 5 Apr 2018

April 5: Psalm 22:22-24

Key Verse: Psalm 22:24
For he has not despised or scorned the suffering of the afflicted one; he has not hidden his face from him but has listened to his cry for help.

Devotion:
One of the most important things about being a Christian is being there for others. We are not all spiritual giants and I’m sure we can all admit to points in our life where we have struggled to walk as a Christian. But when we are not struggling ourselves, we can be there for others to lean on. When we continue to see the blessings which God gives us, we can praise Him for everything and allow others to see what He does to us.

I am not talking about the physical things God does for us, but the spiritual things. I’m not talking about boasting about how He helped with getting rid of a disease or things like that because that is not what counts for me. I am talking about the things He has done for your soul. When He healed you and I, it was not the physical which was important at the time but how He lifted our faith to new heights. The ways which Christ encourages us from the inside are what will count when we are faced with adversity in the future.

Things do not have to happen to us directly for us to see the blessings and the inner strength we gain from God. It can be seeing a friend who welcomes Christ for the first time or someone who praises Him for strengthening them; those things may be what encourage us. That is why it is important to allow others to see what He does for us; it may well be that strengthening they need to see to build up their own faith.

There are going to be times where we try to encourage others by telling them all that God has done for us only to get rejected. There will be times when we think everything is going well and try to tell our non-Christian friends, only to see it build up a further stumbling block or barrier between them and God. We need to encourage our non-Christian friends in physical and earthly ways because they do not yet understand what Christ can do for them; but our Christian friends need to know what Christ does for us as much as we need to know what He does for them. And through everything, God gets all the glory!

Points to Ponder:
Do you share your encouragement with others?

How much has God encouraged you?