journey onWord with us

You have your struggles, and I have mine. I am frustrated by taxes this week, and you probably have had some stumbles also. Life as we know it will always have a new issue right around the corner. Because of these impending circumstances, our tendency is to exert a disproportionate amount of mental energy on ourselves. Perhaps I should be more direct … we are selfish. But with all the struggles of this past week (and every week for that matter), we are at our best when we look beyond our own needs, and consciously model the life of Christ … the greatest Giver.

As this week comes to a close, you can easily recall some of your biggest frustrations.  But the world you live in also has others with hurts, burdens, money struggles and a litany of other problems.  The challenge for you and me: realizing that those around us need someone (you and me) to reach out and care. You don’t have to be compulsive in looking to meet needs, just be willing to look around.  What does the Word say?

Proverbs 12:25
An anxious heart weighs a man down, but a kind word cheers him up.

Proverbs 16:24
Pleasant words are a honeycomb, sweet to the soul and healing to the bones.

I have often been helped by the healing touch of a friend’s counsel.  Without a doubt there are those in your world today who need a kind word.  Be a conduit of God’s grace.  Stepping beyond normal boundaries may be in the Lord’s design for you today.  Some of you wonder how you can reach out, with so much already on your personal plate.  But if as Mark 10:45 states: For even the Son of Man did not come to be served, but to serve, and to give his life as a ransom for many, how then can we ignore the opportunities to care that are placed before us?

If you are anything like me when frustration is high and spiritual energy is low, you want to look the other way.  But when I am down and hurting, “please, someone give me a word”. The truth is that we all need kind, healing words.  And as Christ followers, we also need to give them.  Isaiah 50:4 (which I believe speaks of Christ) has an insightful take for anyone caring to reach out.

Isaiah 50:4
The Sovereign Lord has given me an instructed tongue, to know the word that sustains the weary.  He wakens me morning by morning, wakens my ear to listen like one being taught.

I believe that all Christ-followers should seek to emulate the words above to have an instructed tongue (because of what we let the Father teach us).  Our tongues can be avenues of sustaining the weary.  The design of God for believers is a life of giving, not just when we feel like it.  So use the grace you have received to be a conduit of healing for the weary. If you were in a season of difficulty, what would you need?  Someone in your life may need the same today. Look around right now! Who needs your touch?