Self-Care – Page 9 – Ask Jerry Mercer

Encouragement, Not a Pep Talk

Encouragement is a call to action for an extended period of time, unlike a pep talk that is utilized for a current, in the moment realignment to get you through the task at hand.

To give encouragement we must first establish these three criteria for being a persuasive encourager. Modes of persuasion are: ethos, which convinces others of your qualifications and gives you place in their lives; pathos, which shows you have compassion and a genuine care for the good outcome of others; logos, shows and directs folks towards logical solutions, a persuading of the thought process.

Changing the thought process is an ongoing solution to a negative pull that would stimulate and develop a state of certainty in one’s ability to deal with the now, and thrive in the future. Engaging you and enlightening you as to what is immediate and can be carried out in the now moment, but also staying with you as you persevere in the future.

As we continue in counseling and encouraging, words are supplied to cause an image of overcoming, a stimulation of your core being that enables you to move forward purposefully. “I believe in you”, “you are a perfect fit”, “you got this”, “you are making a difference”. All these words grouped together form images, so that you can gain confidence in yourself, and become self-assured.

You see, we as people tend to be our own persuader of uncertainty and that leads to our being unsettled in our abilities, whether that be physical, mental, or spiritual. Physical hurdles are overcome by spiritual action, the main persuasion of the spirit is hope, hope is an action of expectation and expectation believes the future will be bright, it sees ourselves as more than conquerors. Amen!

A self-stimulation formed by an outside – image or a word of encouragement that brings hope would cause recognition of an accurate discernment of the truth. Then the truth about your situation is the basis for your persuasion, but when we allow contrary ideas and images into our vision we become discouraged. We in essence are discouraging ourselves, by seeing a distorted image of ourselves and our situation.

We need a renewed vision, and I encourage you to listen to a special word of persuasion; “Jesus Christ by His Grace gave us eternal encouragement and good hope, so encourage your hearts”. This scripture would bring a distinct vision of future encouragement and some Bible hope. Amen!

It is good for our hearts to be strengthened by grace, a strengthened heart is an encouraged heart, a grace-filled heart is a cheerful heart, and our cheerfulness will exterminate discouraging thoughts and replace them with, Godly vision. God speaks to our heart in vision, so my encouraging word for you today is, “be strong and courageous” and let these words form a vision in you that stirs you up, cheers you up, and calls you to the act of being persuaded.

Believe in yourself today, you are well able to achieve all that is required of you, all your desires, and all your dreams!

Dream big and let your dreams persuade you, you are the apple of God’s eye!

If you need a faith boost today please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

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Scriptures of Encouragement: 2 Timothy 1:12, Romans 8:37,
2 Thessalonians 2:16-17, Hebrews 13:9, Deuteronomy 31:6 and
Titus 1:1 in the AMP classic “Paul a bondservant of God and an apostle (a special messenger) of Jesus Christ, to stimulate and promote the faith of God’s chosen ones and to lead them on to accurate discernment and recognition of and acquaintance with the Truth which belongs to and harmonizes with and tends to Godliness.” Amen!

Grief, Abandon it by Faith

Grief at times can be a misunderstanding, a confusion of the circumstances, a failure to see and sense the true happenings of a situation. We need inner strength to console ourselves, a substance of a hopeful future that is grasped “by Faith”.

Faith, our true inner beliefs, our deep-seated knowing, and understanding can lift us up quickly and establish situational clarity.

Clarity allows, or extinguishes our ability to process our grief in a healthy manner dependent on our past choices in regards to what we believe. Clarity is the necessary agent required to deal with, and understand the effects our grief will have on our ability to console ourselves.

This clarity can be defined as soul peace, for God is not a God of confusion but of peace. Soul peace would eliminate the discomforting feelings and emotions and deliver you out of the heaviness and oppression associated with the grief.

Therefore let us make every effort to do what leads to peace. Calling on God can enlist Him to lead you and start the healing process. Amen!

Unchecked grief robs us of our natural healing process, but faith in God propels our healing process by a soothing of the mind, heart, and emotions. Our faith in God becomes the seat of our emotions and that gives us a clear place to sit. Seated with God in heavenly places alleviates the pressure that is causing our grief.

If we continue to leave our emotions unchecked, we will allow our imagination the opportunity to oppress us, burdening us down with fear, anger, or guilt, and this weight will keep us from climbing out of a heightened state of grief.

As grief gets its grip we enter into sadness or a feeling of hopelessness and this is the point where we must look up to, and cry out to God for help.

In times of despair, we need spiritual encouragement and we need it quickly, calling a personal friend, a trusted minister, or a Christian counselor, without delay.

You see at this point we need to be guided in a different direction, set on a corrective trajectory, leading back to that soul peace that we allowed ourselves to drift away from. Amen!

Soul peace is a place where we find our grounding, soul peace is an inherent character of God, and this soul peace ends the agitation that is causing continued grief.

Soul peace is actually the desire of us all, but realizing where it comes from takes words of encouragement, words of Godly wisdom, and a hearing of the Word of God that would lead us back to “Faith”.

A spiritual sensation that would override all our sadness and grief and replace it with hope, a hope of things not yet experienced but longed and looked to ‘by faith”.

Heart faith looks to and accepts the feelings that it is longing for, reaching towards, and then that heart faith lays hold of the substance that it was clinging to all the time, Soul Peace.

Faith is the comforting inner peace that causes us to prevail over sadness and grief, then sadness and grief are replaced by unfailing love and redemptive compassion for others that propels us forward, up and out of our feelings of despair and back into caring for ourselves and others.

Giving and receiving care, being ourselves comforted by God, and then being equipped to care and comfort others, this is the true meaning of our living and being.

Living is being full of life, and life is the condition that distinguishes, our unity with God and others, and leads us on a path of continual change.

By faith, we change from Glory to Glory, and by loving one another as we love ourselves we are distinguished as children of God.

From grief to glory, that is the plight of everyone who chooses to accept God and His goodness over the negative pull that works to cut us off from true living.

So, mourn with those who mourn, even take time to experience and process grief, but remember that rejoicing is just around the corner.

Come back to life today, seek love and help today, while it is still called “today”.

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

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Helpful scriptures: 1 Corinthians 14:33, Romans 14:33, Ephesians 2:6, John 1:12 and Hebrews 11:1 “Now faith brings our hopes into reality and becomes the foundation needed to acquire the things we long for. It is all the evidence required to prove what is still unseen” TPT.

Overcoming Threats and Entering into Spiritual Rest

What do you feel is the biggest threat to your personal security today?

As we look at all the news sites and are flooded with social media posts, what causes you to feel lack of control?

Is it financial insecurity, social insecurity, stressed relationships, or just fear to move about as normal? These burdens, and more, threaten to highjack our thoughts drawing us into the realm of fear and unbelief.

Why unbelief? Because when we doubt the ability of our inner man, the man of the heart, and the leading that is provided by the Spirit, we become overwhelmed by the thoughts and fears that surround us.

As we feel more and more threatened by a pandemic, a riot, or a financial collapse, I must ask a question. Who or what is your source of strength, your grounding rod, your rock?

“Whoever or whatever you look to when you need something, that’s your source.”

Where we look and where we place our trust is of huge significance in defining our level of fear. You see, threats cause fear and, fear causes insecurities.

Fear can paralyze us spiritually and we immediately start associating loss with our current situation.

Have you ever had to overcome a fear? Like the first day of school, or the first day on a new job?

The thought process for fear is the same in many different cases, the association of failure, or the thought of the unknown spiraling out of our control. These situations are almost always over thought, and the outcome is never as bad as the picture that our unbelief paints.

Why unbelief you ask? Our doubting our strength, our doubting our experiences allows anxiety to cause our apprehension and fear; these fears are tied directly to our source.

If we can quickly identify the insecurity and fear, we can immediately look to the Spirit of God, who is the greatest overcoming Source we can find. He will cause peace to come over you, that you can’t understand, and even though you don’t understand it His peace gives you the feeling of security and care, security that will guard your heart and your mind, in Christ Jesus.

When we enter into the realm of our inner man, the man of our heart, we find our deep-seated beliefs and when we find this inner man, peace prevails.

Jesus’ guardianship eliminates the threat and allows us to see that we are well able to make it past our insecurities and yes, enter into rest. This rest is not the feeling of napping on the couch (although that works at times), this is soul peace that comes into your heart and your mind, and lets you know that “you got this”.

Although not relying on your own strength and power but leaning into the Comforter, the Helper, the Spirit that Jesus left for us to abide in.

What a great sense of coming over your fears and entering into a restful condition, a condition that is not based on the threats surrounding you, the threats at this point become as white noise.

They don’t move you or even worse they don’t control your thoughts or how you respond to your surroundings. But you go from feeling threatened to entering into rest, what a stark contrast we have when we make “God our Source”.

“Today is your day, take it!” Take the threat, shake it, toss it, and throw it behind you, your rest is straight ahead.

Helpful scriptures are; Psalm 34:5-6, John 16:33, 2 Peter 1:2-3, Isaiah 26:3. 2 Timothy 1:7 states in the Passion Translation of the Bible “For God will never give you the spirit of fear, but the Holy Spirit who gives you mighty power, love, and self-control. Amen! May God richly bless you.

If you’re missing anything in your life today, rest in Him!

If you need a faith boost today, please leave a comment and I will prayerfully respond.

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