Encouragement in the darkness

Choose to allow the unseen to be seen

Several years back I was driving from Oklahoma to Nebraska. It was the middle of summer and an 8 hour drive through Tornado Alley at night. I was barely 20 years old and enjoying the freedom of a road trip with the radio turned up, rather loud, listening to good old country music. Growing up in Tornado Alley we all learned something, when the emergency broadcast system alert goes off, everyone gets quiet. When that alarm started going off, my heart started to race a little bit. It was so dark that the skies were black that if I was headed into a storm, I couldn’t see it. Sure enough several tornadoes had been spotted and others were possible all along the path of the next 5 hours of my drive.

After the announcement was over, the music came back on and I tried to continue on as joyful as before. But my eyes were more focused on the darkness that surrounded me and the danger the loomed within the storm. I was wanting encouragement, but struggled within myself for it. So, I changed the radio station to KLove. I didn’t listen to worship music like I do nowadays, but I did when my heart needed encouragement. What a difference praise and worship music can make on your heart and mind. I also began praying and seeking God, because of my awareness of the possible danger.

God can do amazing things in the darkness when we are seeking Him. God lit up the sky with bolts of lightning. Growing up in the south with many severe thunderstorms, we love to watch the lightning. And one of the reasons why, other than a good lightning storm has an amazing wonder, is that lightning will fill the sky with light. When the whole sky lights up, then God changes our perspective. God zapped my fear away and He encouraged my heart as He continued to light up the sky with His lightning bolts.

Let’s find encouragement in 2 Thessalonians, first let’s take a look at verse 11. Therefore, encourage each other and edify one another, just as you also are doing. We can’t continue on with encouragement until we look back a little more to see what is the “therefore” is there for in the first half of the chapter. The seasons, the times, the Day of the Lord will come like a thief of the night. Paul is addressing that darkness will come and there are two types of people: day people and night people. We are not daughters of the dark, but daughters of the LIGHT. We are Daywalkers (it is the word that comes to my mind when reading this passage, but not related to vampires). So, we are called to walk as day people and not like the people of the darkness. Paul encourages us to be set apart, to be sanctified in Christ in our daily walk, because we don’t know when the last day will come and he encourages all the children of the light to be prepared for His return.

Paul also makes a reference to the Armor of God and calls for us to be on watch and contend for the faith. Now, therefore we encourage, comfort and edify one another. That doesn’t mean that we just say nice things and give atta’boys. It is deeper than that. To give courage, to embolden one another to action with hope and confidence. To comfort one another is to strengthen them from the root of something solid. It begins with a foundation, every structure has a foundation to support it. Back in vs. 9 Jesus Christ our Lord is the foundation of all encouragement, comfort and edification. Edification is an interesting word that takes it deeper. To edify someone is to instruct and improve the mind in knowledge and in faith To be edified means that someone has taken the time to build you up with knowledge of Christ and who He says you are, in Him. Our future is secure, eternity, and that should be an encouragement to us all, no matter how dark the storm is around us.

Glory be to God

coming up next…

A deeper dive on encourage, comfort and edify one another – The Unruly