Encouraging Words in Times of Turmoil
Hello friends,
Sometimes I simply can't find encouraging words. Sometimes I wish someone would speak encouraging words to me. There are so few things to celebrate. We live in a world of conflict, many which go back hundreds of years into the distant past. This is very difficult for people in my country to understand, since our Nation goes back only a little over 200 years. I have difficulty maintaining a grudge for more than twenty minutes, and hatred is just not worth the effort.
I have many other things to concern myself about. In October of 2010, my husband had a heart attack, yet God brought him through, even stronger than before. In that same month, one of our daughters had emergency spinal surgery, from which she is recovering quite well. On June 6, 2011 , on the same day that our other daughter was having emergency surgery, I was admitted into the hospital in a semi-coma. All of us survived, and though we all still have medical problems, God brought us through each crisis. In fact, I find it very difficult to be anything except grateful, ecstatic even! GOD BROUGHT US THROUGH!!! THANK YOU GOD!!!
I know what it feels like to have an empty stomach for days at a time. Yet God fed my hunger of both body and soul. I know what it feels like to wear shabby clothes. I remember sifting through the ragbag. It hurts to be hungry. It hurts to be poor. It hurts to be called lazy when you can't find a job. It hurts to be powerless within a world without mercy. All these things, and more, beat down the human spirit and numb the soul, but in all of these things, we must believe that God will bring us through.
With all the things that I have surrendered in life, this is the one thing that I will not surrender. Mercy. A cup of water. A loaf of bread. A kind word. A smile. Encouragement. I will not surrender mercy to a merciless world!
I have no wisdom, my friends. I don't know all the answers. I only know one answer, the only answer that has ever worked for me. I cling to the Cross of Jesus. I tell Him my needs, and then I do all in my power to be obedient to His words, to His example, to be true to Him. I fail. All the time. But I don't stop trying to be like Him. I'm unworthy, but I know that He is worthy, so, for Him, I keep trying, and one day, I know that I will spend an eternity in heaven, with Him. In Him do I place my hope.
With love,
Jaye Lewis
