Encourage-[en-kur-ij] to inspire with courage, spirit, or confidence.
The enCourage Blog is weekly dose of encouragement in a world that is often filled with bad news. We offer life-giving entries each Monday and Thursday written by gifted women from across our denomination, the Presbyterian Church in America (PCA). You can subscribe below to have them delivered to your inbox. With hundreds of blog pieces, you can search on a variety of topics in the search bar above to read and share with friends. Christina Fox, a gifted author, serves as our enCourage General Editor. If you are interested in submitting a piece, you can contact her at cfox@pcanet.org.
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Content in Suffering
KC JONES|GUEST My children and I were recently reading the children’s classic story, Pollyanna, when I was struck by the many themes and motifs that run parallel to Scripture. I finished the tale with an epiphany I had never considered before. The story of Pollyanna revolves around a little girl who beams with joy and wholesome goodness. After she is orphaned initially by her mother and then by her father’s passing, Pollyanna moves in with her Aunt Polly who lives by a strict code of legalism which she refers to as “her duty.” Life is as you would imagine it would be for a young child moving in with a spinster who has never dreamed of, let alone entertained precocious, young children she has been tasked to raise alone. Holding on to Joy Pollyanna sets about revolutionizing the small town of Beldingsville by spreading the innate joy she feels with each individual. It is not long before it becomes evident how she impacts each resident, one at a time. Pollyanna’s secret is a little game her father taught her to play called the “glad game,” a personal challenge to come up with something she is thankful for despite the hardship she feels, no matter how small or insignificant. As Pollyanna lives out this model, members of the community, who at first had remained reticent, begin to grow curious, then find themselves playing the game as well. A measure of grace soon pervades the residents who were once broken and embittered by the trials of life—which end up being the very catalysts for moving them to a deeper place of joy. Pollyanna’s genuine good nature compared with the resident’s hardened hearts, reminds me of the Apostle Paul who knew firsthand what it meant to remain content during suffering. Consider what Paul tells the Corinthians regarding suffering, “For this light and momentary affliction is preparing for us an eternal weight of glory beyond all comparison, as we look not to the things that are seen but to the things that are unseen. For the things that are seen are transient, but the things that are unseen are eternal” (2 Cor. 4:17-18). Paul not only understood the depths of human misery, but also maintained joy through such suffering because he knew God was using it to strengthen his faith. Like Paul, Pollyanna tenaciously holds onto joy despite the various difficulties she faces, both large and small. She refuses to lose the game...
God’s Faithfulness in a Winter Season: The Gift of Weakness
MARISSA HENLEY|GUEST “I hear, and my body trembles; my lips quiver at the sound; rottenness enters into my bones; my legs tremble beneath me. Yet I will quietly wait for the day of trouble to come upon people who invade us.” (Habakkuk 3:16) When I battled a rare cancer in 2010-2011, the effect of the chemotherapy on my platelets caused me to need a clinical trial and receive treatment hundreds of miles away from my home and my young family. I was suffering in a way that I never had before, and I was completely powerless to change my circumstances. A friend of mine read about a study in Greece that found that eating purple grapes would boost your platelets. It was on the internet, so it was probably true, right? I started eating large amounts purple grapes. You can probably guess how much impact it had on my platelets. That’s right—none at all. It was one more reminder of my weakness. I was suffering, everyone I loved was suffering along with me, and there was nothing I could do but sit in a beige recliner, passively receive the chemotherapy that made me feel awful, and beg God to heal me. When we’re in a winter season of suffering, we often feel weak and powerless to fix our circumstances. If we could change things and get ourselves out of that season, we certainly would. This feeling of weakness is an unavoidable part of our experience of suffering...
The Lamb of God
SHARON ROCKWELL | CONTRIBUTOR Every year for Easter dessert my mother would use a special mold to create a cake shaped like a lamb lying down. The cake would be frosted with white icing and covered in coconut to resemble the lamb’s soft wool. This cake was eagerly anticipated by all of us kids, especially with hopes that one of us would get the head – it had the most frosting! The tradition that came from my father’s family was that the youngest child would be asked why we had a lamb cake for Easter dessert. One by one, each of us learned the proper answer, because “Jesus is the Lamb of God who takes away the sin of the world.” I admit that early on, I did not make the connection between the lamb cake and Jesus. I knew the story from Exodus. God orchestrated the Jews’ escape from the Egyptians by sending plagues to change Pharaoh’s heart. The last plague was the death of all of the Egyptians’, and only the Egyptians’, first-born. The Jews marked their door posts with lamb’s blood so that Death would “pass over” their homes. The plague convinced Pharoah to free the Israelites. Later I came to understand that God did not let the destroyer kill any of His people who believed (Ex 12:23), foreshadowing a time when Christ would protect His own who believed in Him. Much detail was provided to the Israelites regarding the preparation of the lamb to be sacrificed. Exodus 12:1-6 explains that families were to get a lamb on the tenth day of a certain month, examine it, and sacrifice it on the fourteenth. The lamb was to be without blemish. The Jewish families were to assure their lamb was perfect, a picture of what God demanded of their sacrifice in grateful thanksgiving for their deliverance from Egypt and a foretaste of the sacrifice of His sinless son for believer’s deliverance from sin and death...
Finding Our People
LEAH FARISH|GUEST Abraham was called to leave his birth-land and go to a new place, to be the father and founder of a great nation. After a long life on this mission, he “died in a good old age” (Genesis 25:8). Then Scripture says he was “gathered to his people” (Gen. 25:8). What people? He was the first of a new people. True, his wife Sarah had preceded him in death, but that’s not much of a crowd awaiting him on the other side. He was buried far from his earthly relatives, so the phrase doesn’t just refer to being buried in a family cemetery. Quickly we wade into theological depths I am not able to navigate. But what’s clear is that Abraham was gathered to people who are alive in God. Isaac and Jacob are also said to have been “gathered to [their] people.” Much later, Jesus was talking to the Sadducees, who didn’t believe in the resurrection, in Luke 20:38. He said that God is not the God of the dead, but of the living. Then He followed with a surprising statement: God is “the God of Abraham, Isaac, and Jacob.” All three were dead at the time! The Pharisees twice said that Abraham was dead (John 8:52-53). Why didn’t He say, “God is the God of you, and me, and Caesar, and the shopkeeper over there”? Instead, Jesus explained this paradox to the confused Sadducees in Luke 20:38: “for to God all are alive.” These are the people Jesus calls “sons of the resurrection,” who “cannot die anymore” (Luke 20:36). These are our people. We believers are members of a people, some of whom live this side of death on their way to glory, and some rejoicing on the far shore. Hymn writers and preachers have derived comfort for centuries from this truth...
The River Approach to Women’s Ministry: Part 2
STEPHANIE HUBACH | CONTRIBUTOR Welcome to Part 2 of “The River Approach” to Women’s Ministries. . . In Part 1, we discussed how flying over Scripture from an aerial view is akin to the “river approach” flying into Reagan International Airport in Washington DC. When the pilot navigates along the Potomac River, it provides a stunning, overarching, panoramic picture of the whole Washington Mall and all of its monuments. A biblical theology approach to Scripture allows us to see how Scripture connects as a whole as God’s Grand Story. The Creation, Fall, Redemption, and Consummation (or New Creation) framework connects in a vital way with how we conduct women’s ministries in the local church. On a very practical level, this same framework ties directly to essential questions we encounter in walking alongside women. As a refresher, here is the chart that was also presented in Part 1...
How A Prayer Calendar Changed My Prayer Life
JANE STORY |GUEST I have never met a Christian who didn’t struggle with prayer at some point in their life. Most want to pray more or gain more from their prayer life. They may feel dissatisfied with this part of their faith or feel guilty that they don’t pray enough. Many find their minds distracted while praying and wonder if there’s any way to stay focused. Still others may want more practical guidance. In my own prayer life, I’ve struggled with forgetfulness. I often think of things when I’m busy and send up a quick supplication in the moment. Later, I forget about it and don’t continue to pray for that situation. Maybe you too know that sinking feeling when you realize you promised to pray for a friend but later forgot. Beneath these struggles is the understanding that prayer is important to our faith and our walk with Christ. Even more, it is one of God’s commands to us. Prayer is God’s Will We often wonder about God’s will for us, but He spells out part of that plan clearly in 1 Thessalonians 5:16-19...
