{"id":8910,"date":"2025-03-22T17:30:00","date_gmt":"2025-03-22T23:30:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=8910"},"modified":"2025-03-16T08:13:19","modified_gmt":"2025-03-16T14:13:19","slug":"trying-to-be-encouraging","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/?p=8910","title":{"rendered":"Trying to Be Encouraging"},"content":{"rendered":"\n

Yesterday<\/a>, I wrote about a challenge to be encouraging from Job 16:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing? I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief. (Job 16.2 – 5, NKJV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I tried to implement this principle when having lunch with a friend who is perpetually discouraged. And rightly so. He’s between jobs. He’s suffering from a disease that’s said to be incurable. He tries hard to follow God and hear from God, often without success (in his mind). <\/p>\n\n\n\n

Within a few days after our visit, three different sources, including one from our current readings in Job, seemed to speak to his issue. So I sent him a note. Maybe you will find something encouraging in there, too.<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–Beginning of email to my friend–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Thanks for having lunch with me. It\u2019s tough when both of us are going through challenges!<\/p>\n\n\n\n

After seeing you I ran across three quotes from different sources. I pass them on without comment:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

This came from Ryan Danker of the John Wesley Institute:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

I was watching reels on my phone yesterday and came across a clip of Rick Warren speaking at the commencement ceremonies of Oral Roberts University in 2024. His words struck me:<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

I can\u2019t tell you how many times in my life people have come up to me and said something like, \u201cYou know, Rick, my problem is I just don’t love God enough.\u201d And I say, \u201cthat is not your problem. That\u2019s not your problem. Your problem is you don\u2019t understand how much he loves you. Because if you understood how much God loves you, you can\u2019t help but love him.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

When you understand and you feel\u2014now you\u2019ve heard God loves you all your life \u2014 but when you finally feel loved by God, unconditionally loved by God, it changes you. God loves you on your good days as much as he loves you on your bad days. God loves you when you feel it; God loves you when you don\u2019t feel it. God loves you when you do the right thing; God loves you when you don\u2019t do the right thing, because his love is not based on who you are it\u2019s based on who he is.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

It\u2019s not based on what you do. It\u2019s based on what Christ did for you on the cross, with arms outstretched, and nail pierced hands, and blood flowing down. Jesus is saying to the people, \u201cI love you this much; I love you so much it hurts. I\u2019d rather die than live without you.\u201d That\u2019s how much Christ loves you.<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

You can\u2019t make God stop loving you. You can try. But you will fail. Because [his] love is not based on any condition, it\u2019s based on God\u2019s character. When you get that it will set you free.<\/em> – Ryan Danker, quoting Rick Warren<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Job certainly didn’t have this information when he wrote:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

He has torn me in his wrath and hated me; he has gnashed his teeth at me; my adversary sharpens his eyes against me…God gives me up to the ungodly and casts me into the hands of the wicked. I was at ease, and he broke me apart; he seized me by the neck and dashed me to pieces; he set me up as his target; his archers surround me. He slashes open my kidneys and does not spare; he pours out my gall on the ground. He breaks me with breach upon breach; he runs upon me like a warrior. (Job 16.9, 11 – 14, NKJV)<\/em><\/p>\n\n\n\n

And one last one:<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Perhaps the most basic act of faith, after believing that God exists, is believing that God is good when evidence seems to point to the contrary.<\/em> From The Ignatian Workout for Lent: 40 Days of Prayer, Reflection, and Action<\/strong> by Tim Muldoon<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Hang in there,<\/p>\n\n\n\n

Bob<\/p>\n\n\n\n

–End of email to my friend–<\/p>\n\n\n\n

And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another\u2014and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10.24, 25, NIV)<\/em><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Yesterday, I wrote about a challenge to be encouraging from Job 16: I have heard many things like these; you are miserable comforters, all of you! Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing? I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make … Continue reading Trying to Be Encouraging<\/span> →<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-8910","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-uncategorized"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/p8X9bo-2jI","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8910","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcomments&post=8910"}],"version-history":[{"count":2,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8910\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":8912,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=\/wp\/v2\/posts\/8910\/revisions\/8912"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fmedia&parent=8910"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Fcategories&post=8910"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/drbobewell.com\/index.php?rest_route=%2Fwp%2Fv2%2Ftags&post=8910"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}