Your Voice

Encouraging words for difficult times

“Yea, though I walk through the valley of the shadow of death, I will fear no evil: for thou art with me.”

The familiar words of Psalm 23 reveal important truths that can help us find comfort in fearful times.

Walking through the valley of the shadow of death is inevitable. It’s not a pleasant truth, but critical for us nonetheless. The same way we enjoy the serenity of life’s hilltops, we must also expect frequent treks through life’s treacherous valleys. It is in those inescapable valleys that we find potential sources for fear.

The mistake we tend to make is thinking we can circumvent the valley, that we can avoid the sources of fear. We forget that together with all of the wonderful promises of God is the promise that “in this world you shall have tribulation” (John 16:33). …

Fear is a choice. The psalmist emphatically declared, “I will fear no evil.” He is determined that while in the valley, he will not succumb to fear.

In an age dominated by social media, reality television and the opinion-driven nature of cable network news, we have access to content that constantly reminds us just how deep in the valley we are. What if we chose to limit our time on the numerous media outlets available to us? Might we experience less fear?

Faith in God’s abiding presence is the only true remedy for fear. And when we embrace this truth, there is an unfailing source of comfort available to each of us that comes from knowing that no matter what difficulties we face, there is no need to fear because we are not alone. God is with us. (BP)

Pastor Bryan Price
Love Fellowship Baptist Church
Romeoville, Illinois

Ministry goals for the future

Many of us get so tied down into the mundane, routine, daily tasks we must perform that we miss out on God’s plans for ministry.

We must create time in our schedules to see what God has for us. Proverbs 29:18a says, “Where there is no vision, the people are unrestrained.”

Will Mancini, in his book “God Dreams: 12 Vision Templates for Finding and Focusing Your Church’s Future,” says that we are “to lead with a vivid picture of your church’s future” and that “a lack of a clearly defined vision will cut your church’s effectiveness in half.”

This is scary. Nobody wants to be less effective. What is your vision for the next year of ministry? What is your vision for the next 3 to 5 years of ministry?

We get the privilege of leading God’s church in unprecedented days! Will we lead well with a clear, crisp vision? What’s the vision God has given you for ministry in your context?

Josh Meadows
Family life pastor
Spring Valley Baptist Church
Springville, Ala.
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Faith never knows where it is being led, but it loves and knows the One who is leading.

Oswald Chambers
“My Utmost for His Highest”

I know we’re in a busy season, and maybe you’re thinking of creating healthy boundaries at work. Maybe you think it’s impossible. I certainly do/did. But here’s an easy trick for the next time someone comes to you with a task. Say this: “Thank you so much for thinking of me. Let me check my schedule and get back to you.”

Then you can come back and say: “I’m in!” or “Thank you for reaching out to me, but I just can’t do that.”

It gives you time to think without feeling peer pressured into saying yes. Because if you’re anything like me, you’ll just say, “Yes.” It’s like I have some big, “I’ll help” sticker on my chest. And I love helping. I’m great at it. But sometimes it’s not great for me, and my sanity and mental health are more important than being sure those things get done.

Katie Allred
Church Communications
Facebook group

In the Book of Deuteronomy, Moses commanded Joshua to gather people together in order that they might learn. After Nehemiah built the walls, he gathered together the people for teaching and learning.

Jesus Himself grew up in a culture that greatly valued education. He was the Master-Teacher and is referred to as such 42 times in the New Testament.

Teaching, therefore, belongs to the essence of the church. All Christians are born again into the ministry of reconciliation (2 Cor. 5:18–20). And that requires chronic learning as to how best to do so in each and every culture and generation. In some sense, therefore, it seems that all Christians are or should be ordained — regardless of their ordinary vocational pursuits.

After all, as Elton Trueblood wrote, our “other vocation” is our daily work and walk in the pathways of following Jesus Christ: making disciples, baptizing them and teaching them to observe all that I commanded you” (Matt. 28:19–20). Is this reality, in the words of Trueblood, “sometimes overlooked or neglected?”

Morris Murray Jr.
Jasper, Ala.

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From the Twitterverse

@sPeytonHill
“The Lord is near to the brokenhearted and saves the crushed in spirit” (Ps. 34:18).

@jt_english
Community is indispensable to discipleship, but it is not synonymous with discipleship. Wrong question: Are you in community? Better question: Are you learning about the way of Jesus in your community?

@KuyaKevin
“Fallen man is not simply an imperfect creature who needs improvement: he is a rebel who must lay down his arms.” — C.S. Lewis

@brocraigc
“This is really the very height of preaching, when men make themselves nothing and Christ everything.” — Dwight L. Moody

@louiegiglio
Suffering isn’t God trying to hurt us. Suffering is God trying to help us and refine us in the very best way.

@kristenpadilla
“Do not call everything a conspiracy these people say is a conspiracy. Do not fear what they fear; do not be terrified. You are to regard only the Lord of hosts as holy. Only he should be feared; only he should be held in awe” (Isa. 8:12–13).

@EdLitton
Assurance, which leads to boldness, is the work of the Holy Spirit. Believe Him and trust His working today in you and through you for the glory of Jesus Christ.

@LutherQuots
I would rather preach the truth with too great a severity than to ever once act the hypocrite and conceal the truth.

@shane_pruitt78
You can’t be “on fire” for Jesus and cold toward His church at the same time.

@revandyfrazier
“The morning is the gate of the day and should be well-guarded with prayer.” — C.H. Spurgeon

@MattMason3
John Owen: “There is not the meanest, the weakest, the poorest believer on earth that Christ does not value more highly than all the world besides.”

@PaulTripp
The glory song of the angels at Christ’s birth is a call to us to confess our need, trust his grace, surrender to his lordship and join the celebration of his glory.