Notes of Encouragement

On Monday, I was becoming increasingly discouraged by all the world events that were taking place. Wars, riots, greed, deliberate hate, and the list goes on. I generally don’t watch the news for this very reason, but there just seemed to be issues happening everywhere.

Then I saw a notice that the son of a friend of mine had died. He was a soldier in the Israeli Defence Force. It was like the straw that broke the camel’s back. It was too much. It seemed like evil was winning, and I just cried and cried for all the hurting that is going on in this world.

As I prayed, I cried some more, while trying to keep myself from completely falling apart. Then I received a notice from a new online devotional I had subscribed to. It said, “It may seem like everything is falling apart, but the truth is, everything is falling into place. Never forget that God is fully in control.” That was just what I needed to hear, and it made me feel as though my head and emotions were now a bit above water again.

Later in the day, I received news of a personal family event that again plunged me back under the water of emotions. It was as if the enemy saw the progress and was making another attempt to drown me in despair.

But God wasn’t finished. My phone pinged with a new email message from the Billy Graham Association that read:

“As the streets of America boil over with hate, anger, crime, drugs, and just sheer hopelessness, is there anything God’s people can do? You bet there is.” Franklin Graham then called for a time of prayer and repentance for January 14th at noon. His message continued,” As a nation, our sins are so great. We have increasingly turned our backs on God and His commands, embracing godless secularism. We need to ask His forgiveness and seek His face. Pray for our leaders, and pray that God would calm our streets. There are many who would like to stir things up – there are even those who would like to destroy this great country. Pray that these efforts would be thwarted and their plans would be brought into confusion. Ask God to use His church to be His instrument of peace in this time of great uncertainty.”

“Millions of people remembering our sins and asking for forgiveness, repenting, and seeking His face will make a difference. With humility, let’s give God the glory for this great nation and thank Him for His hand of blessing, protection, and mercy.”

That note let me know that there are many others in this world who feel the same way I do. I plan on joining the prayers that will be lifted up to our amazing, wonderful, all-powerful God tomorrow, and I invite you to do the same. Evil may have its moment, but God wins!