5 Encouraging Truths To Remind Yourself

1. Have struggles? You're not alone, we all need Jesus

There are no “Super Christians”, everyone has struggles and nobody can live a Christian life without being connected to Jesus, The Vine (John 15:5). As we resist the enemy, steadfast in faith, remember “that the same sufferings are experienced by your brotherhood in the world”. (1 Peter 5:8-9). Also, “consider Him who endured such hostility from sinners against Himself, lest you become weary and discouraged in your souls.” Hebrews 12:3

2. Your identity isn’t defined by what other people think.

What God thinks is what matters: “For I know the thoughts that I think toward you, says the Lord, thoughts of peace and not of evil, to give you a future and a hope.” Jeremiah 29:11. “How precious also are Your thoughts to me, O God! How great is the sum of them! If I should count them, they would be more in number than the sand; When I awake, I am still with You.” Psalm 139:17-18

3. What other people do is never your fault

You are only responsible for your own actions and not the actions of another. “The righteousness of the righteous shall be upon himself, and the wickedness of the wicked shall be upon himself.” Ezekiel 18:20b. Likewise, it's nobody else’s fault if you don’t continually ask God to refill you with the “oil” of the Holy spirit. (Luke 11:13, Matthew 25:8-9). Nobody else can have a relationship with God for you, so use your God-given free choice to seek God for yourself.

Your main concern should be what God does and wants to do in your life, so don't worry about others do or don't do. As disciples of Jesus, we are to follow Jesus, not other disciples, so mind your own walk with Jesus (John 21:20-22). While we are to encourage others to follow Jesus or to stay faithful in walk they already have with Jesus, we can't walk for them (and nobody can walk for you either). Jesus said that if anyone thirst, let them come and drink (John 7:37). We all must come to Jesus for ourselves.

4. Your worth is not based on your performance

Your worth comes from God who made you and redeemed you: “But now, thus says the Lord, who created you, O Jacob, And He who formed you, O Israel: ‘Fear not, for I have redeemed you; I have called you by your name; You are Mine.'” Isaiah 43:1. “You were not redeemed with corruptible things, like silver or gold, from your aimless conduct received by tradition from your fathers, but with the precious blood of Christ” (1 Peter 1:18-19).

The Christian life isn't about what we do, it's about what God has done and wants to do through us. "In this is love, not that we loved God, but that He loved us and sent His Son to be the propitiation for our sins." 1 John 4:10. We need God's Spirit in order to love the way He does (Romans 5:5).

5. God can do great things through you

“With God all things are possible.” Matthew 19:26b. Remember when Moses was called by God, he was asked “What is in your hand?” (Exodus 4:1-3). God can use the simplest things for His work. Don't compare yourself to others, remember that everyone has different gifts, but the Spirit and the Lord are the same (2 Corinthians 10:12, 1 Corinthians 12:3-4). Since Jesus is Lord over everything and everything we have comes from God, then how does comparing yourself with others make any sense? (1 Corinthians 4:7). How much can we do without Jesus? Nothing. (John 15:5).

Your life may be broken, but when you give life to Jesus, He can use the pieces to bless others. How is that? It's when we find comfort in Him who bore our own suffering and then share that same comfort with others around us. (Isaiah 53:4, 2 Corinthians 1:3-4). God can turn a mess into a message, a test into a testimony, a trial into a triumph, and a victim into a victory. Call upon God in the day of trouble, He will deliver you from the hand of the enemy and then you will have a testimony to tell that glorifies God for what He has done to help get you through (Psalm 50:15, Psalm 107:2). In order to be powerful witnesses, we need the power of God's Spirit (Acts 1:8, Zechariah 4:6).

There's no thief like fear

The following is a sermon that was done by Dee Casper

2 Timothy 1:7 For God hath not given us the spirit of fear; but of power, and of love, and of a sound mind.

This implies that fear can rob us of power, the ability to love (God and others) and be loved (by God and others), and to be able to think and make decisions with a sound mind. Fear alters the way that we do the essentials of life.

What is the solution to fear?

And we have known and believed the love that God has for us. God is love, and he who abides in love abides in God, and God in him. Love has been perfected among us in this: that we may have boldness in the day of judgment; because as He is, so are we in this world. There is no fear in love; but perfect love casts out fear, because fear involves torment. But he who fears has not been made perfect in love. We love Him because He first loved us. -1 John 4:16-19

It is not the fear of punishment, or the hope of everlasting reward, that leads the disciples of Christ to follow Him. They behold the Saviour's matchless love, revealed throughout His pilgrimage on earth, from the manger of Bethlehem to Calvary's cross, and the sight of Him attracts, it softens and subdues the soul. Love awakens in the heart of the beholders. They hear His voice, and they follow Him. -Desire of Ages 480.3

Let the youth see the tender love the Father in heaven has manifested toward them, and the dignity and honor to which they are called—even to become the sons of God— and thousands would turn with contempt from selfish aims and pleasures that have hitherto engrossed them. They would learn to hate sin, not merely from hope of reward or fear of punishment, but from a sense of its inherent baseness. -From Eternity Past 436.3

Love is the only pure and true power that should motivate us in our experience and in our decision making. And the only way to find that love is to encounter God’s love for us. “We love Him because He first loved us.” 1 John 4:19. God wants us to experience a “faith that works by love” (Galatians 5:6) not a faith that works by fear.

Fear, again, robs us of love for God, and love for others because we’re afraid of being hurt. What we desperately need is a life-course altering encounter with God’s perfectly selfless love for us. To be fully known and fully loved. It drives out all of our fear, and brings us to a deeper love for Him, and the capacity to be willing to love and be loved ourselves.

Some people become atheists because they fear having hope and getting disappointed, We don't need to fear this, the bible says: "Now hope does not disappoint, because the love of God has been poured out in our hearts by the Holy Spirit who was given to us." Romans 5:5. "Now may the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace in believing, that you may abound in hope by the power of the Holy Spirit." Romans 15:13. "And let us not grow weary while doing good, for in due season we shall reap if we do not lose heart." -Galatians 6:9

So abject fear is not God’s chosen method to reach us, or to motivate us. In fact, fear is in many ways a selfish motivation. It leads us to make decisions to protect ourselves, and to provide for ourselves, instead of relying upon God to protect and to provide for us. Interestingly, in many of the supernatural encounters that the people of God had with Him or with angels they would be greeted with the tender charge to “fear not” or “don’t be afraid”. God doesn’t want our experience with Him to be driven by fear, but by true love. He wants our perspective to shift to something better.

“Therefore, behold, I will allure her; I will bring her into the wilderness and speak comfort to her…And it shall be, in that day,” says the LORD, “That you will call Me 'My Husband,’ and no longer call Me ‘My Master,'” -Hosea 2:14, 16. Encountering the amazing love of God leads us to have a shift in how we view Him, and our standing with Him. When He sees that we’re ready to fall in love He then drops to one knee. “I will betroth you to Me forever; Yes, I will betroth you to Me In righteousness and justice, in lovingkindness and mercy. I will betroth you to Me in faithfulness, and you shall know the LORD.” -Hosea 2:19-20. “Then I will sow her for Myself in the earth, And I will have mercy on her who had not obtained mercy; Then I will say to those who were not My people, ‘You are My people!’ And they shall say, “You are my God!” -Hosea 2:23

No longer are we to feel like groveling slaves who fear they’ll never be good enough. But instead we should view ourselves as loving spouses who have come to know that Christ is enough, and that He is standing in our stead.

What about “fear God and give glory to Him”? First of all, that’s not where the sermon begins. It begins with the Everlasting Gospel being preached to the world. “Fear God and give glory to Him” is the appeal of that sermon, and it’s also the logical response to the Everlasting Gospel.

"The love of God ever tends to the fear of God—fear to offend Him. Those who are truly converted will not venture heedlessly upon the borders of any evil, lest they grieve the Spirit of God and are left to their own way, to be filled with their own doings. The Word of God is the Guidebook; turn not from its pages to depend upon the human agent. That Book contains the warnings, the admonitions, from God, the rebuke of every evil, the clear definition of sin as the transgression of the law which is God’s great standard of virtue and holiness.... Not one who will study the Word of God and apply its teachings will miss the way." – The Upward Look 371.7

So abject fear robs us of a clear picture of the love of God, and an absence of a godly fear can rob us of a true perspective of our relation to God and how to follow Him.

What does fear do to us? If we use fear in our approach to this beautiful set of beliefs God has given us, or in the way in which we raise and counsel our children, it causes harm and paralysis. When you mix Biblically conservative principles with a fear based approach (even if it’s done in a gentle, loving fashion), it leads to analysis paralysis and misery in the religious experience.

You may be able to scare someone into a pew, but it won’t keep them there. This is one of the reasons why we as Seventh-day Adventists reject the teaching of eternal torment. A teaching that has brought about abject fear into the hearts of many, along with a hatred of God, and a rejection of Him. Regarding the topic of eternal torment: “If this is sound Bible truth, instead of preventing the salvation of sinners, it will be the means of winning them to Christ. If the love of God will not induce the rebel to yield, the terrors of an eternal hell will not drive him to repentance. Besides, it does not seem a proper way to win souls to Jesus by appealing to one of the lowest attributes of the mind,—abject fear. The love of Jesus attracts; it will subdue the hardest heart.” -Ellen White’s Mother, Life Sketches 49.4

We need to ask God how fear is ruling us and shaping our lives. “Surely oppression destroys a wise man’s reason…” -Ecclesiastes 7:7 Even people with wisdom can be beat up by fear and in turn make decisions and develop ideas that aren’t reasonable. This is why we need God to open our eyes, and to allow His love to set us free from our fear. Fear can make us create standards and rules that aren’t Biblical to try to save ourselves and protect ourselves. And it also leads to additional shame, because it’s more standards that we fail to measure up to when we mess up.

God’s solution is; "For by grace you have been saved through faith, and that not of yourselves; it is the gift of God, not of works, lest anyone should boast. For we are His workmanship, created in Christ Jesus for good works, which God prepared beforehand that we should walk in them.” -Ephesians 2:1-10.

In every command and in every promise of the word of God is the power, the very life of God, by which the command may be fulfilled and the promise realized. He who by faith receives the word is receiving the very life and character of God. –Christ’s Object Lessons 38.1

One of the reasons we deal with fear is because we are insecure in our connection and dependence upon God. We’ve gotten behind the wheel and feel like we may run off the road. And we are in danger of that if we’re not letting Him drive, and if He’s not sitting in first place in our life. Whatever we are afraid of losing can’t bring us any more security in our identity or freedom or happiness than He can. Only He can give us our identity, acceptance, and purpose.

Whenever I am afraid, I will trust in You. In God (I will praise His word), In God I have put my trust; I will not fear. What can flesh do to me. -Psalm 56:3-4. This implies that fear affects our ability to trust God. And I believe this is why many of us have self protective tendencies