InstaEncouragements Blog

Be Still and Go Forward

9/18/2020

“Be still, and know that I am God. I will be exalted among the nations, I will be exalted in the earth!” Psalm 46:10

"The Lord said to Moses, 'Why do you cry to me? Tell the people of Israel to go forward." Exodus 14:15

Do you have any favorite Truths from Scripture? Passages of promise that make your soul sing and direct your heart towards worship and praise?

Recently, after listening to a Sunday message emphasizing the need for rest in the believer’s life, I entered the week meditating on Psalm 46:10a: “Be still, and know that I am God.”

These words of instruction always touch my heart in a special way. They’re God’s reminder to me every day that I let my busy schedule run my life and my heart.

2 Comments

What Happened to the Good Old Days?

8/14/2020

0 Comments

A Millennial's Perspective

I am a millennial Christian. Because of my age demographic and the stereotypes that follow it around, older Christians often ask me:

“So, what’s up with your generation?”

“How on earth am I supposed to understand young people these days?”

I never know how to answer these questions, and this inability has bothered me for a while. Part of me feels defensive of my generation. Another part of me genuinely wonders why teenagers and twenty-thirty somethings today are apparently so different from those of decades past. Is my generation and the new “generation Z” filled with worse sinners than our parents’ and grandparents’ generations?

0 Comments

Free to Love in a World Torn by Fear

7/17/2020

12 Comments

Exercising Our God-Given Ability
to Love in a World Torn by Fear

In a line of expressionless, masked faces spaced six feet apart, people of all ages, colors, backgrounds, and ethnicities wait. They wait to walk into stores where they will cringe at touching what other fingers have touched and leave quickly to sanitize their hands and stay home where it is safe from:

Germs.
Violence and riots.
Racial tension.

12 Comments

Embracing Your Past

6/19/2020

10 Comments

Regret’s Role in Redemption

Thank God we don’t have time machines!

I don’t know about you, but if God had allowed some scientist out there in the world to invent a time machine, I would probably spend the majority of my time inside it, rewinding to countless scenes in my life that I would greatly love to “do over.”

And that’s why the God who exists outside of time and space has seen fit to make us humans here on earth live a very chronological existence.

10 Comments

The Things We Tell Ourselves

5/15/2020

13 Comments

How Our Inner Monologue
Determines Our Outward Actions

Whether you’re a dramatic Disney villain ranting about insufferable princesses or a stressed-out mom picking up after your cyclone of children passing through the house, you’ve probably been caught talking to yourself at least once in your life. The truth is, we all find the idea of talking to ourselves rather funny. We have pictures in our minds of those people that usually take the form of absent-minded scientists or psychotic mental patients. Either way, they’re slightly insane.

13 Comments

Learning to Stand Still in the Midst of Uncertainty

4/17/2020

10 Comments

This world is a crazy, unpredictable place. I don’t think I’ve ever struggled with the fear of the unknown more than I have in the past few weeks. We are all going through a time when our natural reactions and even our solid spiritual responses to life are being turned around.

In times of crisis, our thoughts naturally turn to our loved ones, but in a pandemic, we cannot visit them.

In times of loneliness and fear, we are guided by the Spirit to turn to the body of believers to bring us comfort and point us to truth, but we can’t even attend church services.

In times of uncertainty, we fall back on our comfortable routines and schedules to keep our minds off of the hard questions, but right now many of us are left with little to occupy our time.

10 Comments

The Power Within: Are We Helpless Against Temptation?

3/13/2020

4 Comments

The Power Within: Are We Helpless Against Temptation?

This is not the start of another self-help book. I’m not trying to tell girls to wash their faces or trying to empower women to reach their goals and fulfill their dreams.

Goals and dreams are nice. They are a big part of what makes us human. We are creatures bearing God’s image, and we are never satisfied to stay the same. We are always striving to grow. We want the next promotion at work, the next baby to make our family complete, the next financial milestone to be reached. Our goals and dreams can be very good things.

4 Comments