Thoughts for My Friend

Excellent or Praiseworthy is posted on Monday and Thursday nights.

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. — I Thessalonians 5:11

Monday evening’s posting shared how one church prepared a Christian sister for her military deployment to Afghanistan. Her friends assembled a ringed flip-book of their favorite scriptural prayers chosen just for her—to encourage her heart during the time away from her husband and children. But that’s not all they included in their gift to her. They also provided a set of “quotes to ponder” . . . and so we pass them along to you. Perhaps they will encourage your heart during deployment—or will inspire you to copy this idea and prepare a little book for someone who is experiencing a similar challenge:

“When we cling to the promises of God—we can say, ‘Father, the circumstances I am in now are difficult and painful. I would not have chosen it . . . by faith I thank You for the good You are going to do in my life through it. Help me . . . to thank You from my heart.” Jerry Bridges in Respectable Sins

“We must continually remember that we have in the Bible God’s very words . . . We should seek to understand them and then trust them and obey them with our whole heart.”  Wayne Grudem in Bible Doctrine

“For no matter how many promises God has made, they are ‘Yes’ in Christ. And so through Him the ‘Amen’ is spoken by us to the glory of God.”  2 Corinthians 1:20

“(God) is a covenant-keeping God; He never fails those who trust His word.”  J. I. Packer in Knowing God

“My memory is nearly gone; but I remember two things: that I am a great sinner and that Christ is a great Savior.”  John Newton, author of “Amazing Grace”

“May we live our lives not ‘somehow’ but triumphantly.”  Dr. V. Raymond Edman

“The will of God will not take us where the grace of God cannot sustain us.”  Billy Graham

“Never doubt in the dark what God has told you in the light.”  Dr. Bob Jones, Sr.

“God’s glory is to be the ‘Joy of my heart’ and the theme of my life.’”  ESV footnote for Romans 16:27

“What day is this?”  “This is the day that the Lord has made. We will rejoice and be glad in it.”  Psalm 118:24

“But God . . . “  “The story of our difficulties and anguish need not end with a period. We can add a comma followed by ‘But God . . . ‘”  Genesis 50:20; Psalm 73:26; Psalm 49:15; Romans 5:7,8; I Corinthians 2:9,10; Ephesians 2:4

“There’s a wideness in God’s mercy like the wideness of the sea; There’s a kindness in His justice which is more than liberty. For the love of God is broader than the measure of our mind. And the heart of the Eternal is most wonderfully kind.”  F. W. Faber

Questions to Share:

1. Share with one another how an encouraging word has helped you get through a tough situation.

2. Choose one of the thoughts above and discuss it with each other as a way of encouraging your spouse.