+ Christian Encouragement At Every Opportunity +

It is easy to be negative. It is difficult to remain positive. Why? The world in which we live is evil. We see it in our neighborhoods and in our nation and in our world. It drives the internet news sites and the around-the-clock cable news. Some days are so evil that
we say to those around us, “Forget it. I have had it. I give up. I am moving to a faraway mountaintop.” But that won’t do us any good either. Evil will seek us out there too. It is difficult to remain positive that a better day will ever come.
 
Why be positive at all? As much as we see evil at work around us and in every corner of the world, evil fills our lives, even inside the heart—our thoughts, the anger, the jealousy, the lust, the dishonesty, the laziness. We add to the evil of the world. (Yes, we do.) 
 
Without God there would be no reason to be positive. Yet, with Him, there is every reason! He sent His Son into the world, born the sinless Jesus Christ from the Virgin Mary. He came into the world which was as evil as today. But He didn’t succumb to it. He came to push back and defeat the evil around us, the evil in us, and the devil himself. Make no mistake: evil attacked Jesus as He attacked it. (No, evil never retreats quietly.) The world’s sins attacked, our sins attacked, the devil attacked. Jesus felt their pain fully at the cross, where He bore the punishment we deserve for our sins. He even died. But this does not mean that He lost. On the third day, He rose again to victory over sin and the devil. Because He overcame evil, He offers all people salvation: “In this world you will have trouble. But take heart! I have overcome the world” (John 16:33).
 
When we believe in this, a powerful, new attitude comes to live in us, planted by Jesus. We no longer want to grovel in negativity and bring others down with us. We want to be positive and lift up those around us at every opportunity. We lift them us by encouraging them with the good news of Jesus’ victory over sin and evil and the devil. By the power of the good news they too can believe in Jesus for salvation! With the new attitude of
faith, they too can join with us in pushing back against every evil with the message of eternal life in Jesus’ name.

So the Bible encourages every believer in Jesus: “Be very careful, then, how you live—not as unwise but as wise, making the most of every opportunity, because the days are evil” (Ephesians 5:15,16).