Debunked discouragement

After my quiet time this morning, I discovered a strong desire to blog. It's like the desire to win, without a trophy for successfully doing so...

There is really just one thing that I want to discuss and I'll keep it short and simple.

This week I was facing a little bit of discouragement, nothing major, but it always shows up towards the end of the semester. It's hard for me to pin-point it exactly, but that's beside the point. I don't know about you, but one of the most encouraging things a Christian can hear is that someone has surrendered their life to Christ. That's exactly what happened with me on Wednesday night. After Epicenter, a student who I will get the privilege of mentoring in January, came up to me to tell me about his friend. His friend had never been to church before because his parents wouldn't let him go. This student had been inviting his friend for months, but to no avail. Finally, his friend's parents allowed him to visit Epicenter last week (the first week of our Christmas series, "It's A Wonderful Life") and in his very first experience with "church", he gave his life to Christ.

When I heard this, everything that I was stressed about and discouraged about just faded away. The only way to explain it is that God never ceases to surprise me with His grace. I was so excited. That conversation had been on my mind for the last few days. This morning during my quiet time, I came across this verse:

1 Thessalonians 3:7-8

"Therefore, brothers, in all our distress and persecution, we were encouraged about you through your faith. For now we live, if you stand firm in the Lord.

Paul was writing this letter to the church in Thessalonica and he mentions earlier in his letter that he was fearful that the church would be led away by false teaching, and he was relieved or encouraged to hear a good report from Timothy about their faith.

Hearing about someone else surrendering their life to Christ? That's hard to beat.

I pray that this is an encouragement for whoever stumbles across this blog today...