Encouraging Words

16 May Encouraging Words

Read 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11 (NLT)
Thought for the Day: When in doubt, we can always encourage others!

You didn’t read that title wrong. Today’s Encouraging Words is “Encouraging Words”. When a society-wide shutdown took place in March 2020, our church began publishing this M-F devotional in our attempt to provide daily inspiration during an otherwise dark and confusing time. It has been a great joy to be able to share daily encouragement in written form for the last 2+ years… but this devotional did not originate with the global pandemic of 2020. Rather, “Encouraging Words” originally was a weekly email sent out by Pastor Stan (known then as “Pastor Stan’s Encouraging Words”) after he was inspired by K-Love’s tagline: “Positive Encouraging Music”. Realizing the popular Christian radio station was onto something, Pastor Stan began sending his emails.

But, the point of today’s devotional is not self-congratulation. Instead, we’d like you to know that “Encouraging Words” was born out of a desire to offer something short and positive to people we care about. We love our congregation and the greater community. In short: we care about you.

We know that life is messy and complicated. Sometimes, life makes no sense, while at other times, we may feel like we are living our best lives today (even if this feeling is very fleeting). Such is the ebb and flow of each of our lives. In all honesty, the best gift we can offer as pastors is to pray for you and remind you that there are good people in the world who care. And – you can do the same thing.

When in doubt, you can always take time to offer positive encouragement to someone in your life. So, today, let’s remember the words of the Apostle Paul: “Encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing!”

In Christ,
Pastors Stan and David