Category: Articles for Encouragement

This week, like I often do, I was asking God to speak to me. He does that once in a while, and it thrills me every time. Sometimes I will get a word or phrase that will turn out to be what the pastor is preaching that Sunday morning. Sometimes, it’s a message that will show up in my Bible passage later that day. And sometimes it’s a dream that brings encouragement or correction. This time was different, though. I woke up Wednesday morning in the middle of night to use the bathroom, and I again asked God to speak to me. When I got back into bed, four words popped into my head. I immediately recognized them as the title and chorus to a rock song from the 1970’s. After looking at the lyrics, I believe that God was giving me a message of hope for His children during a time of great judgement and trial.

The words were “Ridin’ the Storm Out,” and the song was published by REO Speedwagon in 1973. Before I looked up the song, those were the only four words I actually knew. I hadn’t heard the song itself for probably well over twenty years. The story behind the song was that the band was touring in Colorado when they decided to play a trick on their manager by pretending to get lost. It started snowing really hard, and they ended up getting lost for real in the Rocky Mountains. It turned into a dangerous situation in which they had to ride out the storm.

When I looked at the lyrics, a few things jumped out at me right away as symbols. The rest came little by little and piece by piece as I prayed about it this week.

“Ridin’ the storm out, waitin’ for the thaw out On a full moon night in the Rocky Mountain winter”

The Rocky Mountains are at a higher altitude than the cities nearby. With deep snow and high winds, the weather can get dangerous very quickly. I thought of this as the Christian life. We are closer to God, but as such we not only fight the regular storms and trials of life in a fallen world, but we are battle our flesh and specific attacks of the enemy. We are all waiting for the day when Jesus will come back to fully vanquish the devil and all his storms. A full moon is just a reflection of the sun. As Christians, we reflect the Son of God. We are lights in a dark world.

“My wine bottle’s low, watching for the snow”

Wine symbolizes a few things in the Bible. The first thing that comes to mind is the “new wine” that is the symbol of the New Covenant with Jesus. But wine has another meaning as well. It is paired with judgement and God’s wrath in Jeremiah 25:15 where it says, “For thus says the Lord God of Israel to me: ‘Take this wine cup of fury from My hand, and cause all the nations, to whom I send you, to drink it.'” I believe this is speaking of a time in which will God pour out His judgement on nations. As Christians, we are already looking for it because the watchmen have been warning us for a long time that it is coming. Many countries, especially America, will be judged for turning their backs on God.

“Thinkin’ about what I’ve been missin’ in the city And I’m not missin’ a thing”

The city represents the world. The storms don’t hit the city as hard as in the mountains. For some people without Christ, they have easy lives and only have to think of themselves and their own needs. But as Christians, we constantly fight the flesh, bringing every thought into subjection. We are striving to be doers of the Word and not hearers only. We also fight the enemy who wants to wear us out and cause us to stumble.

Once we are saved out of the world, we are not to turn back. We are not to be envious of those who seem to “get away with” doing things the easy way. Also, during a time of judgement, some of the old comforts of life will be taken from us to achieve God’s purposes. We are not to spend our time wishing for those days to return but we are to be about our Father’s business.

“Watchin’ the full moon crossing the range Ridin’ the storm out Ridin’ the storm out”

God is our refuge and our fortress. When storms blow in, He is our shelter. He will be with us in times of trouble no matter where we go. But there will be an end to the storms, and those who endure to the end shall be saved. It’s just a matter of riding out the tough times until the end.

“My lady’s beside me, she’s there to guide me She says that alone we’ve finally found home”

These were the first lines to jump out at me as symbols. I immediately thought of the Holy Spirit who guides the children of God. This thought brings great comfort to me as I reflect on the idea that He is always with me, guiding me, even when I don’t realize it. While we are here on earth, we have a constant companion and Comforter, a little taste of what forever will be like when we get to our true home with Jesus.

“The wind outside is frightening”

Life can get tough, and when judgement does hit in is fullness, we could see some very frightening things. Wind can be noisy. It can knock things over and make the doors and windows rattle. But inside the comfort of a mountain cabin, the wind can do little more than make you shiver with gratitude that you are inside and warm. When we are under God’s feathers, we have the ultimate comfort in knowing that He is in control, and nothing happens without His permission. All things work toward the good of those who love the Lord and are the called according to His purpose. We might go through some terrible things, but God has a plan, and we will never be alone.

“But it’s kinder than the lightning life in the city”

Whatever we see and experience as children of God, it will always be better than living a life without Him. Here, that life is empty and characterized by vanity. In eternity, for the soul without Jesus, there is only eternal pain.

“It’s a hard life to live but it gives back what you give.”

This last line really stuck with me. The gate is narrow and the way is difficult that leads to life. During a time of judgement and maybe even persecution, we aren’t only going to be able to think of ourselves and our own needs – or even those of just our immediate family. We will need to be listening for God’s voice and doing His will during a time when people will be scared and looking for answers. We will all be held responsible for what we do with our time here on earth and rewarded for all the works that stand in eternity.

Putting It All Together

If you follow biblical precedent at all, you know that many countries, including America, are due for some very hard times as God pours out judgement on nations that have forgotten Him and His ways. But there is, here, a message of hope in that judgement. God will always be with His children, and He will guide us when we keep our eyes focused on Him. We must obey His voice even when things get tough, but with His help, we will all be able to ride out the storms until Jesus calls us home.

If you are in a storm right now, here is a gospel song that might help. It’s called “Ride Out Your Storm, Turn to Jesus.” It has a similar message of hope for better days with an assurance that Jesus is with you in hard times.

If you like analogies, try It’s Not the Machine That Makes Us Clean. It compares aspects of the Christian life to a dishwasher. Or, try Three Reasons We Can’t Stop Trying to Save the Lost. It’s an analogy of the Parable of the Starfish.

Like to read more from Evangelical Christian sisters who “tell it messy, true, and wonderful because we are His”? Check out Telling Hearts.

Just ask anybody: spiritual warfare is intensifying. The devil knows his time is short, and he is seeking to wear out the saints. Now, we know that greater is He who is in us than he who is in the world. We know that. But when an attack comes at us full force, it can help to have a plan of action ready to go. An incident I had this week in my classroom involving disappearing and moving objects taught me the very best way to combat the worry, stress, and confusion the devil tries to bring: standing on the promises of God.

I teach in a public high school. At the beginning of the school year, I consecrated my classroom to the Lord. I asked for His protection and peace. And, I took a stand against any enemy spirits that might have wandered in over the summer with the various cleaning crews that came and went. As a general practice, I pray over my classroom often. Any time there is any kind of incident or strife in my classroom, I anoint again with oil. 

Disappearing and Moving Papers

The incident happened on a regular Thursday during the last block of the day. I had two kids come in to make up a test for me while my regular eighth-period was having class. I have two versions of the test, one green and one blue. The girl finished her green test, and I grabbed the answer keys out of the drawer where I keep them. At first I started to use the blue one, but I realized her test was green, so I put the blue one back in my drawer. I graded her test and put it into the gradebook. I thought I put the green key in the drawer with the blue one. A few minutes later, the boy finished his blue test, so I went to grab the key out of the drawer. The drawer was empty. Neither key was inside.

I started looking everywhere. As a teacher with lots of papers and a lifestyle of constant multi-tasking, sometimes I stack papers and put them in places they shouldn’t be. I looked in all my drawers as well as the drawers for the graded work where I put the tests when I’m done grading them. No keys. Frustrated but still thinking there was a rational explanation, I contacted another teacher on my team and asked to use her keys to make new ones. She brought them over, and I hole punched a new set. All the while, I was alternating playing the audio book for the novel we are reading and discussing it with the kids in my eighth-period. 

I used my friend’s key to grade the boy’s blue test. Then I put her two keys in that same top drawer where I always keep my keys. I put my new ones on top (I still had to finish taping them.) Later, I went to get my friend’s keys out, and they were NOT in the drawer. I started my search of drawers once again. I found them in the drawer below along with another, smaller key that had been “floating” in my top drawer. Needless to say I was quite freaked out. Either I was losing track of my actions, or something or someone was messing with me. I was standing there the whole time. No kid could have snagged the keys from my desk, much less moved them from desk drawer to desk drawer. Something was going on.

Searching for Answers But Finding More Questions

I spent the whole drive home praying and asking God to show me what He wanted me to see. After all, nothing happens to His children without His say-so. Did I have an open door that needed to be addressed? Was He trying to teach me a lesson? Did my run-in with the mouthy girl during fifth-period allow permission for the enemy to attack me? Were her words of anger when she realized I called her parents somehow responsible, either directly or indirectly?

I didn’t get any answers on the drive. When I got home, I went to get into my pajamas like I always do, and I noticed that the two or three lights left in the chandelier in my bedroom were out. The room was completely dark. I didn’t think anything about it until I went to my bathroom and saw that two of the four lights in my bathroom were out as well. Now the darkness felt coordinated.

Requesting Prayer

So I put out some requests for advice and prayer. First, I talked to my pastor and his wife. They assured me that the missing keys problem was probably just a mistake in stacking that the enemy was using to cause confusion, self-doubt, and distress. They acknowledged the lights were probably a direct attack and prayed for me to have peace and protection. I also talked to several close Christian friends online who have had supernatural experiences involving objects being moved and removed. 

A brother in Christ told me about a mutual friend and sister in Christ who was having trouble with objects being taken out of other children’s backpacks and being placed into her daughter’s bag (to frame her for stealing). A sister told me about a time when she went to turn the light on in the basement, but it was out. On closer inspection, the bulbs were laying on the ground, fully intact, directly below the fixture. She had been alone in the house at the time. Another sister told me about a recent incident that involved brain fog and flickering lights. Both of them stopped after a warfare prayer.

The Solution Was to Stand

In any case, no matter if some entity had moved my papers or simply used mis-stacked papers to upset me, the burned bulbs and the feeling of confusion, stress, and worry pointed to a real attack. So, when I got to my prayer closet that night, I had a heartfelt talk with God. I told Him that I knew that I was His child and that I have authority over entities that would seek to torment me.

The Bible says that I don’t have to fear because He is with me, and I believe that He will strengthen me and uphold me with His righteous right hand. I trust Him to be my protection, and I was going to stand on those promises. I played the song “Standing on the Promises of God” and then read my passages in the Old and New Testaments right at my bookmarks like I always do. 

After I finished, I had the idea to read Psalm 37. There were the words from my prayer: “Trust in the Lord…does not forsake His saints…They are preserved forever, But the salvation of the righteous is from the Lord; He is their strength in the time of trouble. And the Lord shall help them and deliver them; He shall deliver them from the wicked, And save them, Because they trust in Him.” I fully believe that God uses His Word to speak to us just at the right time. I was encouraged and relieved. He had heard my prayer and confirmed my thoughts were from Him. Whatever had happened, He was in charge and on top of the whole situation.

He is With Us in Our Praise

Then a song popped into my mind to play before I left my closet. It’s my new favorite song and a song that praises and thanks God. “When I Think About the Lord” has the most amazing chorus: “Hallelujah, thank you Jesus. Lord You’re worthy of all the glory and all the honor, and all the praise. It makes me want to shout!” The Bible says that the Lord inhabits the praises of His people. When I worshipped the Lord, I could feel His presence with me. As I went to bed, I was not afraid, and I slept soundly until the next day. That next morning, I spent a few minutes re-sanctifying my classroom, and I had a super day.

Warfare is bound to happen, and as we get closer and closer to Jesus’ return, it will more than likely increase in scope and frequency. But when those attacks come, whether physical or mental, we must remember our position in Christ. The enemy is more powerful than we are, but he is nothing in the face of our God. So the next time you are under attack, remember to take authority in Jesus’ name, praise Him with your whole heart, and keep standing on the promises of God..

Check Out These Other Posts

If you like articles about spiritual warfare, try Spiritual Warfare: A Defeated Foe  in which God gives me a visual about the devil’s eventual demise. If you like more stories about school, try God Knows Even When You Don’t — So Pray in which prayers take care of a graffiti problem on campus.

Or, Check out my YouTube Channel where I will read all my posts to you while you do something else.

As Christians, we pray every day. We just do. We pray for ourselves, our families, and our fellow Christians, as well as a variety of other people and situations that present themselves in our lives each day. God knows us and guides us, many times by those very prayers. So, when something happened at the school where I teach a couple of weeks ago that made me feel helpless in and of myself, I did the only thing I knew to do. I prayed. And that prayer made a difference for a stranger I may never know beyond the name I gave to her when I spoke to God: “Green Marker Girl.”

Disturbing Messages

I teach in a public high school in the DFW area. The school is well run, and the problems that come up on campus are dealt with swiftly in order to stop a snowball effect that can and does happen when discipline is ignored in schools. Restrooms are cleaned regularly, and stalls have always been kept pristine – until two weeks ago. It started with one stall in the girls’ restroom in my hall. The words were disgusting and written in green marker on the door of the stall I usually use. The next time I came in and used a different one, I noticed the same green writing. There was another dirty message about sexual activities done to a certain boy on campus. 

I called down to the office and left a message for the school secretary to have someone come upstairs and clean the walls. The four letter word used is pretty common to teens, but some of the other words this girl was writing might be “educating” some of the young freshmen who also use the facilities. The secretary was out, though, so nothing was done. By the next day, every stall I went into had green writing. After school, I talked to the night janitor myself. I specifically asked him to clean the stalls, and he did. 

No End in Sight

For a few hours the next day, the walls were clean and perfect once again. And then they weren’t. Green Marker Girl had struck again. This time, the writing came with smears of bodily fluids and messages of activities done there producing said mess. I was disgusted and distraught. Cleaning the stalls didn’t work. Cameras are not allowed inside the restrooms for good reason, and the cameras in the hall itself wouldn’t help catch someone who could come in with the marker hidden in a purse or backpack. There was really no way to stop this girl from writing on every stall, every day.

And then I thought a little more about Green Marker Girl herself. What must this girl’s life be like that she felt the need to do this? What demons must she have to prompt her to act out in a way that was so beyond normal behavior even for troubled teens? I had no idea who she was or even how to help, but God knows. So I prayed for her.

Prayers Make The Difference

I prayed for her to feel conviction, that God would impress upon her how wrong it was for her to be putting messages where other girls could be tainted by perversion. I also prayed that God would allow her to feel His love and peace, that she would know and understand that God loved her. Even if her situation was rough, I prayed she would think to turn to Him for comfort instead of acting out in such a way. Every time I came into the restroom, I would think of her and pray. The janitor cleaned the writing again that night. And then the writing stopped.

The stalls in my hall’s restroom have been graffiti-free this whole past week, but my prayers have continued. I keep praying for Green Marker Girl to know and feel the love of Jesus and for God to send people into her life to lead her closer to Him. I even pray that one day I might meet her as a sister in Christ in eternity.

We Are Never Helpless

Psalm 121 says that we should lift our eyes and look to the Lord for our help. He is the Maker of heaven and earth, and He is also actively involved in our lives. My personal prayer each and every day I walk into the school is for God to see me as one of His “guys on the ground” on my campus. Just like in Acts 18:10 when God told Paul that He had “many people in the city,” God knows where His people are, and I want Him to consider using me when He sees a need at my school. I want Him to send people and situations my way so I that can help others and bring glory to Him. 

We don’t have to know all the details in a given situation. Names are not important to a God who knows everything. We just have to pray to be in the right place at the right time for God to use us and to keep lifting people up to Him. We are never helpless. He is our help. And He can and does move on behalf of our prayers.

Interested in more articles about prayer? Check out Make God’s Will My Will: A New Way to Pray. It’s a “God wink” story that teaches a new way to pray to get what you want. Or, see God Answered the Prayer I Did Not Pray. In it, God teaches me a lesson about leaning on Him for strength.

Like to read more from Evangelical Christian sisters who “tell it messy, true, and wonderful because we are His”? Check out Telling Hearts.

I don’t know about you, but I like things simple, and I love the bottom line. Recently, I was pondering the boundaries between Christ’s finished work on the cross and my own personal responsibility as a believer. After all, we can’t just get saved and then put our feet up on the couch and watch Netflix. There are some things that God requires us to do in order to show our faith and endure to the end, but what? The Bible holds instructions from God to us. In it, He reveals His will for our lives.

I believe God boiled this particular issue down for me into three clear steps when I was reading Hebrews 3-4 one night in my prayer closet, and this comforts me immensely. Life is complicated, but as hard as things get sometimes and as weak as I can be, if I can just follow these three instructions from God I will know that I’m doing His will. All we really need to do is to listen, obey, and trust. 

We Must Listen

Paul begins Hebrews 3 by addressing the brethren, partakers of the heavenly calling. True, he is talking to Hebrew believers of that time, but he’s also talking to you and me. He tells us what the Holy Spirit says. It starts with “Today, if we will hear His voice.” God’s sheep hear His voice. That’s the mark of a child of God. When we hear Him speak to us, we know we are His. But as anyone who is a parent knows, it’s not enough that our children hear us speak to them. We want them to listen to what we are saying and understand the message behind the words. As God’s children, we must be sensitive to the times when He talks to us. We must be diligent to pray until we understand clearly what He is saying and follow the instructions from God

We Must Obey

Next, the Holy Spirit draws a parallel between the exodus of ancient Israel and now. He says, “Do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, in the day of trial in the wilderness where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw My works forty years. Therefore I was angry with that generation, and said, ‘They always go astray in their heart, and they have not known My ways.’” Moses took the children of Israel out of Egypt and into the wilderness. Jesus Christ took us out of Satan’s kingdom and into His own. While on earth, we are basically in the wilderness. This is our “day of trial” since we haven’t hit the Promised Land, or Heaven, just yet.

As partakers of the Holy Spirit, we are the temple of God on earth. He speaks to us, and we listen to Him. Then comes the hard part sometimes: we have to obey what He is telling us to do. Even when it’s inconvenient, even when it doesn’t fit with our idea of what should be happening in our lives, and even when we just flat out don’t want to do it, we must be open and willing to obey God simply because God knows best. Otherwise, the consequence is a hardening of our hearts. We will be less able to hear Him the next time and further away from the path where we need to be.

We Must Trust

The last part of the Holy Spirit’s message is scary. “So I swore in My wrath, ‘They shall not enter My rest.’” The vast majority of children of Israel never entered the Promised Land because they didn’t trust in God to supply their needs. They took one look at the giants inhabiting the land of Canaan and decided that the wilderness wasn’t such a bad place to be after all. Only Joshua and Caleb, the two who believed God would give them the victory, were alive to see the day when God would lead their children into the land flowing with milk and honey. The rest perished in the wilderness in judgement for their unbelief.

Our belief is now the very thing that will get us to our Promised Land, an eternity with our Lord and Savior. We must have faith in His finished work on the cross, His blood shed for us and our transgressions. But we can’t just trust that He saved us. We also have to trust that He will supply our needs in our wilderness here on earth. He provides for His own, and we are commanded to cast our cares upon Him for He cares for us. That faith and trust in Him then becomes a resting of sorts.

Hebrews 4:11 says “Let us therefore be diligent to enter that rest, lest anyone fall according to the same example of disobedience.” Diligence is careful and persistent effort. It takes some doing to consistently redirect our thoughts away from ourselves and our problems and onto the one who holds our lives in His hands. We rest IN Him now, and one day we will rest WITH Him in eternity.

A Confirmation of the Lesson

While they aren’t always simple to achieve, those three little words are easy to remember. About a month after I believe God gave me this lesson, I found myself pondering yet again. This time, I was wondering about my “job” on earth. Was I doing enough for God? Was I making a big enough impact for the Kingdom? Am I pleasing to the Father? Then those three words popped into my mind again. So, I asked myself: “Was I following the instructions from God that He gave me?”

To the best of my ability, yes, I believe I was. A few minutes later, I opened my Bible app on my phone for my morning verses. There I was in Hebrews 3 again. God was confirming the lesson right on time just the way He often seems to do. God DOES speak to His children. And, when He does, we just need to listen to His voice, obey His instructions, and trust His provision for both our lives and our hereafter.

If you like to look at scripture, try Twinkly Trash: A Closer Look at Job . In it, we see a special lesson about what God thinks is true treasure. Like to read more from Evangelical Christian sisters who “tell it messy, true, and wonderful because we are His”? Check out Telling Hearts.