<\/p>\n
If we are going to survive in this hostile world, we all need a Barnabas, somebody who will come alongside us and encourage us. I am grateful to so many people who have helped me, but especially Dr. W. A. Criswell, my predecessor at First Baptist Dallas. When I was twenty-two years old, he invited me on staff as an intern. Four weeks later, the youth minister left, and Dr. Criswell wanted me to take his place. But some of the youth leaders weren\u2019t so sure. Dr. Criswell met with them, and I had my ear up against the door. They were saying, \u201cHe is so young. He doesn\u2019t have any experience.\u201d Then Dr. Criswell said, \u201cIf you don\u2019t want Robert, that\u2019s fine. I\u2019ll hire him as my associate to run this entire church.\u201d All of a sudden the leaders changed their tune. \u201cIf you think that much of him,\u201d they said, \u201cthen yes, we want him.\u201d Dr. Criswell walked out of the room, put his hand on my shoulder and said, \u201cSon, it\u2019s all yours. Just don\u2019t let me down.\u201d He took a chance on me for no reason whatsoever. I bet you have somebody like that in your life. Be sure to thank those people who have helped and mentored you, but also recognize your responsibility to be somebody else\u2019s encourager.<\/p>\n
How do you go about that? First of all, value other people. See them as God sees them. Everybody is important to God. I love these words of C. S. Lewis: \u201cThere are no ordinary people. You have never talked to a mere mortal. Nations, cultures, arts, civilizations\u2013these are mortal, and their life is to ours like the life of a gnat. But it is immortals whom we joke with, work with, marry, snub, and exploit.\u201d Everybody you encounter is an immortal soul. Doesn\u2019t that make you look at other people differently?<\/p>\n
Second, champion the underdog. You may remember the kid on the playground in elementary school who was always the last to be picked for a team. Maybe you were that kid. Maybe you know the pain of loneliness or rejection. Champion the underdog, because God does. In 1 Corinthians 1:27, Paul wrote, \u201cGod has chosen the weak things of the world to shame the things which are strong.\u201d So many times in the Bible, God chose to bless the younger brother over the older brother. God chose the tiny nation of Israel to be His chosen nation rather than a great empire like Assyria, Babylon, or Egypt. God champions the underdog, and so should we.<\/p>\n
Finally, offer second chances to people when they fail. People are going to disappoint you, but be willing to extend grace to them, just as you are the recipient of God\u2019s grace. Through His death and resurrection, Jesus Christ selflessly helped us in our time of need, and that is how we will survive and thrive in difficult times\u2013by selflessly helping others in their time of need.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
\u00a01 Corinthians\u00a01:27 \u00a0But God chose what is foolish in the world to shame the wise; God chose what is weak in the world to shame the strong. If we are going to survive in this hostile world, we all need a Barnabas, somebody who will come alongside us and encourage us. I am grateful … Continue reading “25.n. From Pathway to Victory, Dr Jeffress”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-121797","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121797","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=121797"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121797\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":121798,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/121797\/revisions\/121798"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=121797"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=121797"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=121797"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}