Advancing with Encouragement

Everyone of us needs encouragement. We each need to know that we can accomplish the dreams that we have in our hearts.

My doctoral research project is an experience that is helping me accomplish my dream. My dream is to make a dynamic difference in our community. To be more specific, I have a dream of making a difference by helping to solve stubborn and very difficult problems.

What kind of problems? The problems that no one has been able to solve. Problems like confusion, addictions, violence and crime.

You may ask, "What makes you think you can solve problems that have been unsolvable?" I am asking the same question myself!

The solution to any difficult problem is half solved by asking a profound question! My question for my doctoral research project is: Will a grace-based and community-oriented seminar on the nature of identity formation for emerging adults in Boise, ID, facilitate an understanding and healing of their identity crisis?

Grace-based means that love, acceptance and value are initiated and imparted to people. I have personal experience in this area. I have been formed to be loving, accepting and valuing through my relationships in my doctoral experience.

I am almost half way through the process of finishing my research project. The final rough draft is due February 1, 2009.

What about you? What is your dream? What profound question can you ask to make your dream become a reality?

Prosperity

Most of us want to experience "prosperity."

When you hear the word prosperity, what word pictures or feelings do you imagine?

Pictures of success, peace, well-being translating into positive feelings.

Well, you may not have warm, fuzzy feelings right now, but I have good news for you!

Did you know that our Creator has plans to prosper us and not to harm us? He has plans to give us hope and a future. That's what His Living Word tells us in Jeremiah 29:11!

The Hebrew word for prosperity means completeness and wholeness.

Our Lord wants to heal us and make us whole in every area of our lives!

How do we experience healing and wholeness? Ask Him and thank Him for making us whole!

Better yet, why don't we ask Him and thank Him now?

Lord, we ask You and thank You for healing us and making us whole today! Heal our emotional and physical pain. Touch us with Your Healing Hands. Transform our hurt into healing, our pain into peace and our problems into possibilities. We thank You for giving us Your wholeness!

My friend, receive Him and His peace and His prosperity today! Receive His blessings! Let His presence, His Provision and His Protection be yours today!

Encouragement

I love to find the root meaning of words. Words are powerful. They have creative energy to empower people or destroy people. I am thinking of an old proverb right now. It says, "Words kill, words give life; they're either poison or fruit --you choose."

Think of the word encouragement. I think of instilling courage. Who doesn't need courage? You need it. I need it. We all need courage. We need courage to overcome the obstacles we face. Courage to be authentic and centered in a world that is spinning out of control.

The economy. Recession. The war. Health. Fear. Relationships. Expectations. All of these things can create discouragement when they don't work out the way we had hoped.

When I read or hear the news in our city I feel an increasing level of frustration, anger and fear. There are more assaults, robberies and desperate people committing acts of violence. Why?

I think that they need to be encouraged. They need to know that they are loved, accepted and valued. Where do we start? I am starting with me. You can start with you.

Then what? We all need to be reattached. Attachment disorders produce all kinds of bizarre behavior.

The first place to be attached is with our Creator. If we do not realize where we came from, how will we know where to go?

We may not know anything about Him. We may have bad feelings about Him. Feelings like aloof, harsh, mean, uncaring, absent. If we had absent, angry, distant or uncaring fathers, we can't help but have those feelings.

I want to introduce you to Abba. This aramaic word means precious father. He loves you. He accepts you. He values you. He desires to transform your hurt into healing, your pain into peace and your problems into possibilities. If you ask Him to reveal Himself to you, He will. Stay tuned to my next post and I will help you understand who He is and how He wants to relate to you.