If you’re an empath or a feeler in the spirit, the world might feel overwhelming right now. The election is coming up, people are more isolated than ever before, there’s tremendous financial hardship for many, and more. It’s easier to isolate and become self preservating when everything around us feels like an enormous weight. But, we can keep our heads above water with the Lord as our strength.
Hope, Joy + Peace are always available
Most people I’ve talked to lately feel like we’re in survival mode. It’s rare to see genuine smiles and deep joy while out and about. And yet, Jesus lends us His joy, hope, and peace to us in abundance. There is enough security in that to sustain us through it all!
“May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in Him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit” (Romans 15:13). If you feel hopeless, joyless, or lack peace, pray this over yourself and your family! It’s imperative that we exemplify these things, and are working at having them in every circumstance. Those who don’t have those right now need to tangibly see the light within us from Jesus.
Honoring one another above ourselves refreshes us
People desperately need a smile right now. A hug, a joke, to laugh, for things to be made lighter. That includes us taking care of one another and making one anothers burdens lighter. It's one of the reasons why we’re given the commandment to “love your neighbor as yourself” (Matthew 22:39). This is also why discernment is key to loving people well. Are you paying attention to what your brothers and sisters in Christ need? If you’re hurting, what would you want? Would you want someone to sit in it with you and pray over you without judgment? I know I would. We need to have discernment by asking the Holy Spirit how we can best love those people. We all receive love differently, but a great place to start is to ask ourselves, what would I want if I was going through this? Then, asking the Lord how we can best show up for that person.
Shifting our focus from ourselves to others actually makes us feel better, and it’s by design – “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves” Philippians 2:3). We’re called to carry one anothers burdens “Carry each others burdens and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). We’re also called to love without expectation of a return and to love people we don’t like, which isn’t an easy ask for any of us; “Love your enemies! Do good to them. Lend to them without expecting to be repaid. Then your reward from heaven will be very great, and you will truly be acting as children of the Most High, for he is kind to those who are unthankful and wicked” (Luke 6:35). If 1 Peter says that love covers a multitude of sins, then we can heal others with the love that we give to them, and vice versa. We can cover things that may have been spoken over them that were untrue with Gods truth. We can actively show up for them by meeting a need, and by doing so we’re covering hurts they’re experiencing with Gods heart of love.
We were never promised comfortability, but comfort from God
We’ve all heard, “God will never give you more than you can handle”. And Paul demonstrates for us that, that’s just not true. We will feel like we can’t handle things at times, which is why we have the Lord to cling to and comfort us. But within the body of Christ, we’re also supposed to have one another to lean on. We persevere together, with Christ.
“We think you ought to know, dear brothers and sisters, about the trouble we went through in the province of Asia. We were crushed and overwhelmed beyond our ability to endure, and we thought we would never live through it. In fact, we expected to die. But as a result, we stopped relying on ourselves and learned to rely only on God, who raises the dead. And he did rescue us from mortal danger, and he will rescue us again. We have placed our confidence in him, and he will continue to rescue us” (2 Corinthians 1:8-10).
He is our comforter, so we have the opportunity to comfort. We’re doing this Christian life in unity. We’re being carried, sustained and comforted together. And we’re given the ability to extend it through encouragement, truth, prayer and by simply being present for people. “He comforts us in all our troubles so that we can comfort others. When they are troubled, we will be able to give them the same comfort God has given us. For as we share abundantly in Christ's sufferings, so through Christ we share abundantly in comfort too” (2 Corinthians 1:4-5).
We aren’t called to isolate, but to be vulnerable and present – even in our pain
When was the last time you shared your heart with someone and came together in prayer? I know this is hard, and sometimes we don’t get the reaction or acceptance we hoped for in return. However it’s a muscle we need to flex, and something we have to put into practice.
“Therefore confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person is powerful and effective” (James 5:16).
We have to take expectations off the table of how we think someone should respond to us sharing our pain. Not everyone is comfortable sharing their hurt, some people fear being seen and are stuck in a performance pattern. But if we don’t try, we miss the opportunity to allow the right people to intercede in prayer for us, and love us. By isolating or being emotionally unavailable, we’re robbing others of the responsibility we have as Christians to show up and fight for our brothers or sisters in Christ when they’re weak. We prop each other up, and deepen our relationship with God and one another by being vulnerable in our pain.
Encouragement + choosing to rejoice
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. (Hebrews 10:23-25)
We all know there is tremendous power in our words. Words carry weight that can stick with us for years. Encouragement can take a couple forms, in my opinion. Sometimes we need someone to speak Gods truth to us and set us straight in love. Other times it’s a beautiful compliment, kind word, or uplifting comment. We need to receive both, and give both forms of encouragement. We need it more than ever right now. “Instead, speaking the truth in love, we will grow to become in every respect the mature body of him who is the head, that is, Christ” Ephesians 4:15.
If you notice something wonderful about someone, tell them. If you can encourage a friend to keep going and run the good race, tell them. If you discern something about a friend from the Holy Spirit and you can speak into their lives with truth, do it with love. If you see gifting over someones life, speak it over them!
I’ll leave you with this: let’s choose to rejoice. There’s something good about every single day, even when it looks like every aspect of the world is on a fast downward slide. In the end, Jesus wins and there’s goodness wherever His spirit is. And He’s in us. Which makes you and I, the catalysts for good things.
Psalm 118:24 “This is the day the Lord has made, let us rejoice and be glad in it.”

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