Be Encouraged!
"They encouraged them."
Acts 16: 40
Scottish pastor John McNeill told a story from childhood about
walking home one night. “It was nearly midnight when I started to
tramp six or seven miles down through a lonely glen to get home.
The road had a bad name. This particular night was very black,
and two miles outside our village the road gets blacker than ever.
I was just entering the dark defile when, about one hundred
yards ahead, in the densest of the darkness, there suddenly
rang out a great, strong, cheery voice, ‘Is that you, Johnny?’
It was my father—the bravest, strongest man I ever knew.”
We often need someone to call our name in the darkness to
encourage us. Our God is the God of encouragement, and
He uses various means to accomplish this goal. He uses His
Word. He uses His Spirit. He uses the writings of others. But
He also uses people.
In Acts 16, Paul gathered his young converts
during a very dark time and encouraged them.
Someone is on a gloomy road today.
Can you call their name in the dark?
Can you be an encouragement?
"Many a time since, when things have been getting black
and gloomy about me, I have heard a Voice greater than
that of my earthly parent cry: “Fear not, for I am with thee.”
John McNeill
