Courage and Encouragement
Download MP3Welcome to a place of peace, hope, and divine encouragement. This is Joy in Every Step with your host, beloved preacher, retired teacher, and faithful servant of the Lord, Sarita Bernadette. Each week, Sarita shares heartfelt messages rooted in the word of God, filled with wisdom, joy, and the gentle reminder that God cares deeply for you. Whether you're walking through the valleys or dancing on the mountaintops, Sarita's voice will guide you back to his promises step by step. So open your heart, settle your spirit, and take the next step in faith with Joy in Every Step.
Sarita Bernadette:Hi. I'm Sarita Bernadette, And welcome back to Joy in Every Step. Thank you for listening today. Remember the homework that we had from last time last episode, the first episode we talked about taking the first step. And I asked you all to, over the next three days after you listened to that episode, to take the first step.
Sarita Bernadette:And we said that it could be as simple as opening a new doc on your phone or making a list or just putting down a few bullet points. We said that he could even make a phone call to connect with someone who was doing what it was or what it is that you are called to do. And we just agreed that whatever you were led to do in that moment to take the first step to just go and do it. And I certainly hope that you did. I certainly hope that you did.
Sarita Bernadette:So I'm sure we'd all agree that taking the first step when moving into your next chapter requires both courage and encouragement. So let's talk about courage and encouragement today. Courage and encourage are words that are related. They stem from the French word encorege. That's on to make or put in and core which means heart.
Sarita Bernadette:You go and look those up for yourself because I am sure that I did not do them justice pronouncing them. I never took French. The word encourage means to instill confidence and hope. To give heart, to give heart. And to have courage is to be confident, brave or bold.
Sarita Bernadette:To have heart, again, to have heart. So courage is having heart and encourage or encouragement is giving it. Courage, let's isolate that. I liken starting something brand new or embarking on a new chapter in life to you know that first time you rode your bike down a steep hill, anybody ever done that? Short story, short story here.
Sarita Bernadette:Now I'm infamous for making a short story long so just hang tight here, we're going somewhere. When I was young, we didn't have bicycles with all the fancy brakes and whatnot. My favorite bike was pink with a long banana seat. It had the nifty high rise handlebars with those oh so special sparkly tassels hanging from them. The rides down that hill, down the hill on that thing were epic.
Sarita Bernadette:I do remember the feeling of being at the top of the hill preparing to come down. I mean you know you could be in for the ride of your life and you knew it but inside there's this tiny bit of hesitation. Your friends are gathered around watching and you muster up the courage to take off but on the way down you realize the risk you're taking and so you use the only breaks available at the time, your two feet. You manage to slow it down just enough to avoid taking a bad spill that causes your friends to laugh, but you feel relieved and you think you've made the right decision in that moment. That bike was going too fast and you were not ready for that kind of ride.
Sarita Bernadette:You just weren't prepared. Stepping into what God has called you to do can be scary just like that. Deep down you know God has your back. You know you're going to be in for the ride of your life. But the courage to make that first move is hard to come by.
Sarita Bernadette:You might even take the first step, but as things get rolling, you tend to put on brakes. You drag your feet, if you will. The challenge can be believing that you have what it takes to move into your next, whatever that might be. You have courage, you have the courage, you need courage or you need heart To encourage, to encourage means to inspire with courage and confidence and hope or as we said before to give heart. So listen, I want to give you some heart right here.
Sarita Bernadette:You have to remember it's you making the moves or taking the steps, but you're fully backed by God. Psalm one hundred thirty eight and eight reads, The Lord will work out his plans for my life, for your faithful love, O Lord, endures forever. Don't abandon me, for you made me. Another translation uses the word perfect or perfect. It says, The Lord will perfect that which concerns me.
Sarita Bernadette:He'll make it perfect. He'll make it all good. It's all Him. If you're aligned with Him, it's all good. Isaiah 4one 10 reads like this, Don't be afraid for I am with you.
Sarita Bernadette:Don't be discouraged for I am your God. I will strengthen you and help you. I will hold you up with my victorious right hand. I love that scripture so much. Don't be discouraged.
Sarita Bernadette:The message version says, don't panic. The living Bible in that same scripture uses the words, do not be dismayed. So the Lord is telling us because he is who he is, we have no need to be discouraged. There's no need to panic and there's no need to be dismayed. He's going to give us the strength.
Sarita Bernadette:He will give us the strength and He will hold us up. And it makes reference to His righteous or His victorious right hand. That part has always been important to me. Listen, that part lets us know that through all of the challenges, through all of the things that come to challenge us in this life, God will be right there. His righteous right hand definitely represents strength and power, but it also represents His guidance, His protection and His favor.
Sarita Bernadette:And yes, even his victory and triumph. I'm here to tell you, your hesitation is a human response and it's valid. It happens. Hesitation happens. It happens and I believe that the only way we can get past it, the only way we can get over ourselves if you will, is to go to God and be completely honest with him about all of those thoughts, all of those feelings of hesitation, all the trepidation that you're feeling, all those old tapes that are playing in your head, He knows about them anyway.
Sarita Bernadette:All that stuff in your head that's keeping you from making that move, tell God about it. Tell Him about it. There is this scripture that revolutionized my life many years ago and it's found in Mark nine twenty four. It's a cry for help, a prayer even if it's a prayer and it's spoken by the father of a boy who was possessed by a demon. The verse reads like this, The father instantly cried out, I do believe, but help me overcome my unbelief.
Sarita Bernadette:The father comes clean in that moment. He professes that he believes in the healing power of Jesus, but at the same time he confesses or admits that he has a problem. He admits that he's struggling with doubt and unbelief. This verse has always reminded me that even believers can experience periods of doubt and that it's all right to go to God and ask for help with that. He's available.
Sarita Bernadette:You can say, I believe you Lord, but I'm also battling unbelief. I need your help. Just say so. He knows. Listen, what's going to be required as you step out is what's known as Godfidence.
Sarita Bernadette:Some of you have heard this term before. It's confidence with God at the center. It's when you move, knowing that God is the all powerful one, the omnipotent one, And you know that his abilities far surpass yours. It's when we understand the ability that we have, the ability that you and I have comes from God and he cannot and will not fail. He will cause you and I to triumph.
Sarita Bernadette:So I say this, you are equipped with what you need for what's ahead. You are destined to walk out a plan designed by the master. A plan designed exclusively for you. No one else can do what you are called to do. That desire that you have, that urge to do more, to give more, to be present for someone else, that sense that your story is the one that needs to be told so someone else can benefit from hearing it?
Sarita Bernadette:Well, put that there. That's what's going to bring you joy. He's already put in place what you need. Remember the Word says, Trust in the Lord and He will give you the desires of your heart. Well, I'm telling you now to lean in and now's the time.
Sarita Bernadette:Now's the time. Lean in. Our courage to make that move can often be thwarted by our concern about our resources, that we're not going to have what we need. But I tell you listeners, there are so many stories, so many testimonies from people who have launched out into the deep. They've done what God was telling them to do and the finances to do it showed up or, or God stretched the little bit they had and made that work.
Sarita Bernadette:Oh, don't get me started on this topic. One quick reference in the word of God. I want to, I want to share this with you. First Kings 17, there's an accounting there of a widow. This widow is discouraged, dismayed and I dare say in a bit of a panic.
Sarita Bernadette:There's this drought going on and she and her son don't have any food or any money left. In other words, their resources have dried up. So this widow plans to use what little she has and prepare the last meal of their lives. But God sends Elijah, the prophet along and performs a miracle. The miracle was that the oil and the flour they needed to survive lasted them throughout the drought for the whole duration of the drought, three years they had what they needed.
Sarita Bernadette:And one of the contributing factors in this story that I want to highlight here is that the widow did as she was told by the Lord through the prophet Elijah. She put what she had, what little she had, into God's almighty hand. You might have heard the expression, little becomes much in the hands of God, or maybe you've heard, He owns cattle on a thousand hills. In other words, God has endless resources. Try Him.
Sarita Bernadette:Try Him. Be encouraged. Along those lines, I know that it's not just money that concerns us, it's support, support. We all need it. When you're embarking on a new journey, charting a new path, it can get lonely.
Sarita Bernadette:Remember Moses? We talked about him in episode one. We talked about him and we said that God spoke to him when he was all alone on the backside of the desert through that burning bush. Many times instructions, revelations or ideas or plans, if you will, come when we're all alone. I do believe the Lord uses our time in solitude with Him so He can speak clearly.
Sarita Bernadette:That can be a challenge for us sometimes as humans because we like to run things by other humans. We want other humans to witness the same things that we're witnessing. We want them to hear the same thing. We want others to help carry the weightiness of God's messages. We want and we need support in these moments.
Sarita Bernadette:I do believe God understands that. Support in the form of encouragement is invaluable and God knows. When you have someone who's willing to walk alongside you and give you the push you need, it's necessary part of our journey. It's a beautiful and wonderful thing. So I pray that as you gain more and more courage that you grow in Godfidence as well.
Sarita Bernadette:I pray that it gets easier and easier to make the next steps and I also pray that you will find ways to pass that along to others who are in need of the very same thing. Sharing your story of courage will encourage others. You need to share your riding your bike down the hill story. Someone needs to hear that so go ahead and share that. You'll find joy in it.
Sarita Bernadette:You've been listening to Joy in Every Step. I'm Sarita Bernadette. I'm grateful you chose to spend some time here. You can find Joy in Every Step wherever you listen to your podcasts. Do check out the website at joyineverystep.org.
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