A Blessed Sunday: Courage to Continue
Days seems goes by so quickly, it feels like it was only Sunday the other day and it is already Sunday today. Today is Pastor’s Sunday and unlike those previous Sundays I sit in the front today beside my grandmother so I could hear and understand the sermon. The preacher wasn’t our Pastor but one of the church well-known member (L), I think she was previously a church president.
The scriptural topic topic was “Courage to Continue” and it can be found in the book of Haggai 2:1-9, our preacher for today started by giving definition of some words and telling a story of a well-known writer for being fearful of his family’s future because he think he isn’t giving them the best things that others can provide. I have learn from our Sunday’s preacher that Haggai is the portion of the Bible where the people became contented in their home and forget about the temple, they become busy living that they forgot God.
Why We are Discourage?
The preacher says the first reason why we are discourage because of insecurity, we compare ourselves to others and we always think that other people are better than we are, secondly we felt insignificant that we are not needed, we felt useless, thirdly we felt unaccepted like we do not belong, we are an outcast and nobody loves us and understood us. It was indeed true because that’s what I felt, I felt all of them when I was dropped like a hot potato, I felt so discourage that I felt like I have no space in this world.
How to Find Encouragement
We can find encouragement through groups like friends, through getting achievements like masters degree, promotions and etc. and by boosting ourselves and raising our voices but all these encouragement mentioned above are leading to nothing but to camouflage our insecurities in life.
To find courage and strength we should look around us and we should look-up because it was mentioned in verse 4 of Haggai that God’s presence gives strength to all Judea’s, because God is with them. The preacher says that it was indeed true that life is full of problems but we all must remember that we are not really alone when we felt like we are alone because God is with us.
Source of Courage
- God’s presence – God’s spirit take away fears
- God’s Promise – His sincere and faithful promise “I will never leave you nor forsake you”
- God’s Power – He is powerful to talk to us to move on and continue life even though we sometimes underestimate Him and only depend to ourselves.
- God’s Peace – Peace is not the absent of crimes but peace is in ourselves and to our relation to God
Well, the preacher says we all find courage to continue when we felt confident with ourselves, put God to our lives and we will find courage to stand when we kneel before the Lord. When we have nothing and felt discourage to continue we should all remember that when we have God we have everything, He want us to continue and to go.
A note to self
[Image source: pinterest.com]
Honestly, when I heard the scriptural topic it felt like God’s is talking to me, telling me what should I do after crying the other day and worrying about my future, it was like God is saying I have to be strong and courageous, not to lose hope and have a strong will to go on like how a saying goes that there is always a rainbow after the rain.