Find encouragement where it is to be found

Find encouragement where it is to be found. 

A profound axiom for sure, at first glance it appears to be equal to a coach yelling the obvious. “You gotta make that shot!” or “Don’t hit the ball into the net!” Like it was the athlete’s intention to miss the shot or hit the ball into the net. Yet the apparent similarity of poor coaching, and ‘Find encouragement where it is to be found,’ disappears upon further inquiry. 

How? How is this more than an obvious truth? 

First, the human condition tends toward the lamentation of difficulty and wallowing in self-pity. Subsequently this tendency manifests in negativism, and or superficial amusement. Unfulfilled and unsatisfied, most people miss the beauty of life and the ordinary encouragement that rests right before their face. 

Second, as followers of Jesus Christ, by faith in His promises, can rejoice in the obvious encouragement repeatedly offered. If the human condition is beset on forgetting the simple encouragement of God’s Word, then it is a profound reminder to, ‘Find encouragement where it is to be found.’

This may function in the least likely places, being applied in dark and difficult moments. While wallowing in the pit of despair, a brother or sister in Christ might cast their voice to you, and remind you, ‘Find encouragement where it is to be found!’  Upon hearing their words, you may see glimmering hope and beauty of Glory in what once pulled you from the pit. 

Don’t allow the familiar to fall empty upon you. Don’t allow the simple to be taken for granted. Stop looking for something new to bring brightness. Put away the naysaying and distracting drone of the world. In the end, the truth we know so well in Christ can be that which brings us the deepest encouragement. 

By God’s grace may we find encouragement from passages like this, “Therefore, since we have been justified by faith, we have peace with God through our Lord Jesus Christ. Through him we have also obtained access by faith into this grace in which we stand, and we rejoice in hope of the glory of God. Not only that, but we rejoice in our sufferings, knowing that suffering produces endurance, and endurance produces character, and character produces hope, and hope does not put us to shame, because God’s love has been poured into our hearts through the Holy Spirit who has been given to us.” (Romans 5:1–5, ESV) 

By God’s goodness may we take encouragement from familiar words of beauty and life in Jesus Christ;‘Finding encouragement where it is to be found.’