Encourage-[en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.
The enCourage Blog is weekly dose of encouragement in a world that is often filled with bad news. We offer life-giving entries each Monday and Thursday written by gifted women from across our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). You can subscribe below to have them delivered to your inbox. With hundreds of blog pieces, you can search on a variety of topics in the search bar above to read and share with friends. Christina Fox, a gifted author, serves as our enCourage General Editor. If you are interested in submitting a piece, you can contact her at cfox@pcanet.org.
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Colossians 3 and Lessons Learned from My Wedding Day
BETHANY BELUE | CONTRIBUTOR It was a beautiful fall day when my husband and I stood in front of a sanctuary, with family and friends gathered around, and entered into a covenant of marriage. As our nerves jittered and our hearts pounded, our pastor pointed out words from four verses that the Apostle Paul wrote to the church in Colossae. Almost nine years later, these words continue to remain in my heart and have overflowed into my marriage and family. Colossians 3:12-15: Put on then, as God's chosen ones, holy and beloved, compassionate hearts, kindness, humility, meekness, and patience, bearing with one another and, if one has a complaint against another, forgiving each other; as the Lord has forgiven you, so you also must forgive. And above all these put on love, which binds everything together in perfect harmony. And let the peace of Christ rule in your hearts, to which indeed you were called in one body. And be thankful. Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly, teaching and admonishing one another in all wisdom, singing psalms and hymns and spiritual songs, with thankfulness in your hearts to God. And whatever you do, in word or deed, do everything in the name of the Lord Jesus, giving thanks to God the Father through him. Our pastor encouraged us with four truths from this passage as we entered into this binding covenant. Love as you have been loved, forgive as you have been forgiven, encourage as you have been encouraged, and serve as you have been served. Love, forgive, encourage, and serve. These are words I’ve always wanted to offer in my relationships, but the Lord has specifically used the way they were taught from this passage to show me more of my need for Jesus and how it is only through Him that we can offer these things to others. Love as you have been loved It’s hard to love others. Over the last nine years of marriage, I’ve realized how much I really don’t have what it takes to love another person without the help of Jesus...
Wasteful Thinking
SUSAN BENNETT|GUEST We have been hearing a lot lately about cutting wasteful spending from our nation’s budget to reduce the debt burden on taxpayers. But waste isn’t easy to trim—whether it’s extra pounds, finances, or even our thinking. Wait, what? Wasteful thinking? Who said anything about that? Yet, a person’s wasteful thinking can be just as burdensome as out-of-control spending or eating. The problems that arise when we neglect our thought life are huge—and sadly, some have eternal consequences. Paul tells us in Romans 1:21, “For although they knew God, they did not honor him as God or give thanks to him, but they became futile in their thinking, and their foolish hearts were darkened.” Here, Paul speaks of those whose hearts were untouched by God’s Spirit, still walking in darkness rather than light. But even those of us called out of darkness into God’s marvelous light are called to strive in our salvation. One of the most common battles in this struggle is wasteful thinking. As a biblical counselor, I’ve seen how real this is. Wasteful thinking can lead to discouragement, discontentment, divisiveness, and despair. Sometimes it becomes so deeply entrenched that it feels like the person has no control over their thoughts. This burden weighs heavily—not just on them, but on those who love them....
Idolatry of Authority and the Supremacy of Christ
KC JONES|GUEST [4] I say this in order that no one may delude you with plausible arguments. [5] For though I am absent in body, yet I am with you in spirit, rejoicing to see your good order and the firmness of your faith in Christ. [6] Therefore, as you received Christ Jesus the Lord, so walk in him, [7] rooted and built up in him and established in the faith, just as you were taught, abounding in thanksgiving. [8] See to it that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to human tradition, according to the elemental spirits of the world, and not according to Christ. [9] For in him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, [10] and you have been filled in him, who is the head of all rule and authority. (Colossians 2:4-10) It should not surprise us on this side of the Garden that the forbidden tree from which Adam and Eve took and ate the fruit was known as “the tree of the knowledge of good and evil” (Gen. 2:17). Knowledge has always been prized and coveted by mankind because of the inherent belief in all of us that it contains power. And, like Adam and Eve, we crave such power because we believe we can and should be in control of our own lives and perhaps over everything else in the universe. A People Deceived Paul warns the church at Colossae of this temptation. He writes, “See that no one takes you captive by philosophy and empty deceit, according to Christ. For in Him the whole fullness of deity dwells bodily, and you have been filled in Him, who is the head of all rule and authority” (Col. 2:8-10). This deception is of the same nature as that which the serpent used to lure and entice both the first man and woman to twist the words of their master and disobey His command. First, the serpent planted a seed of doubt by simply asking a question, “Did God actually say, ‘You shall not eat of any tree in the garden’?” (Gen. 3:1). The woman replies by correcting the serpent, yet she adds her own variation as well, “’We may eat of the fruit of the trees in the garden, but God said, You shall not eat of the fruit of the tree that is in the midst of the garden, neither shall you touch it, lest you die’” (vs. 2b-3) Eve’s alteration suggests that even before the rest of the story unfolds, she believes God’s rule is up for personal interpretation. She inserts herself as a figure of authority, adapting and using language to meet her own desires....
Road Trips
SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR I love road trips. Recently we were traveling in a remote area where we saw a road sign that read simply “Rough Road Ahead.” It wasn’t long before I felt the impact of a road that was in such poor condition that I knew we were in for a long, bumpy ride. I slowed down sensing that I could easily get caught in the potholed surface. We bottomed out a couple of times. I slowed down even more, dodging divots, sometimes slipping, and praying for smoother surfaces ahead as I tried to maintain control. Road Signs for Life Wouldn’t it be helpful if we had road signs for life that signaled when we were in danger, and needed to prepare for a bumpy ride? In fact, such instructions for life are recorded in Proverbs 4. Here Solomon, under the direction of the Holy Spirit, provides instructions for his son to obtain wisdom, which will guard him for life. In a later passage we learn that “the beginning of wisdom is the fear of the Lord” (Prov. 9:10). True wisdom comes from a reverential view of God’s authority and greatness. We respond to learning about God and His ways by living in accordance with His commands. It all comes down to choices. You can choose the path that serves God, or the path of the wicked. Wisdom is the principal treasure to be acquired. With it, “When you walk, your step will not be hampered, and if you run you will not stumble” (Prov. 4:12). Solomon uses an ‘Attention’ sign to signal us to listen to his words, meditate upon them, and hide them in our hearts. “Be attentive to my words, incline your ear to my sayings” (Prov. 4:20). This prepares us for a life seeking a godly path rather than our own path. Solomon’s words are “life to those who find them and healing to all their flesh” (Prov. 4:22)....
The Stewardship of Suffering
AMY SHORE | GUEST Winter crept into my heart early this past year. Weariness gave way to selfish wallowing and introspection as I reflected on hard realities during the holiday season. December 31st, I found myself unable to breathe. A beautiful sand dollar, a Christmas gift from a friend, lay shattered on the kitchen floor. I fell to my knees in despair alongside this visual representation of my current brokenness. January 1st, a morning filled with missed calls and urgent messages: my dad had suffered a heart attack and was undergoing surgery. Then came January 21st when I faced the devastating reality of his death. I couldn’t catch my breath. The Learning Journey “Learning to live in the reality of His presence is the essence of our prayers and our pilgrimage.”[1] For the past year and a half, well before my father passed, I’ve been chewing on that quote from Susan Hunt around the journey to know God better amidst fear and frailty. I long to live more fully in that reality. You may have heard the saying, “God never gives us more than we can handle.” My pride wants this to be true because it means I can pull myself up by my own bootstraps. I’ve tried. My bootstraps snapped....
Entering into the Joy of Others
LISA UPDIKE | GUEST Ecclesiastes 3 tells us that there is a season and a time for every matter under heaven, a blessed ebb and flow of challenge and loss, peace and rest. Joy and sadness. Births and deaths. Serving and receiving. And though we intellectually understand that we will have trouble in life, it still can catch us off guard. When the time of trouble persists, we cry out like the psalmist did, “How long, Lord?” We wonder, “Does the Lord even see me?” If we are in a particularly long, hard season we may wonder why the Lord is richly blessing others and not us. Well, at least that’s what I do. My guess is that I am not alone. For the past several years my life has been really hard, sometimes heartbreakingly so. Two of my children are going through some painful circumstances causing distance between us. My heart aches over our difficult relationship. In another sphere of life, my mother is aging and often in pain. She is lonely for my dad whom she lost five years ago to Alzheimer’s. It’s so painful to see her suffer, though she does so with grace. On top of these things, this past fall we were blindsided with grief when my husband’s youngest brother took his life. We had no warning. So. Much. Grief. And I hate to say it, but there is a lot more to this list. I’m telling you; my husband and I have been hurting. A lot. Still, we were hanging in there. We were growing and learning to cling to Jesus. But then there was just one more tragedy and it tipped the balance. It seemed more than we could bear. Was God actually kicking me when I was already down? I knew better, but at 4:30am when the phone rang, I knew it couldn’t be good news. My heart sank as I reached for the phone. The vet told me she was so sorry, but our dog had passed. You see, she had been rushed to the emergency vet the night before. We thought she was going to recover, but just like that, she was gone. My husband and I held each other and cried. This just seemed like too much. In our sadness, she had been such a comfort. Now she was gone. Hadn’t we had enough grief? Why this too?...
