Encouragement

     I have a page in my "Notes" app on my phone where I store ideas for future FTM Thoughts as they come to me so that I won't forget them down the road. Often the simplest instances provoke thoughts and ideas for inspirational encouragement. A ripple in a pool of water, a disobedient canine on a lead, an ant carrying a tremendous load, or even our flag waving in the sky have all served as thought provoking ideas for my posts. But for today's Flat Tire Ministries Thought I can't say that was the case. During my devotional time and subsequent prayers this morning, the thought of encouragement kept running across my mind, so in obedience I want to share with everyone or maybe with just one reader in particular my words of encouragement today. "Be strong, be relentless, and stay the course that has been set in front of you."
     Be strong, courage and faith don't come without making some sacrifices along the way. You will face opposition when you are doing the right thing, but you have to allow your faith to make you bold and courageous. Muscles become stronger when they are given a workout. The muscle is torn so that it can repair itself stronger and thus be capable of handling more stringent workouts in the future. Your faith is the same way. When you believe in what you are doing and you have sought guidance on what you are doing through prayer and meditation stay strong, don't give in to negative comments or opposition that is certain to confront you. Stay strong and remember as long as you don't give up, as long as you are moving forward, and as long as there is still air in your lungs you can accomplish what you want to do at this moment. Faith = Strength. God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth give way and the mountains fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. Psalm 46:1-3. Paul said it best, "If God is for us, who can be against us?" Romans 8:31.
     It's easy to give in, it's easy to make excuses about why something isn't going to work and then just quit. I want to say this to you, don't give up stay the course, see it through, dig in, and grab a hold of something and hold on. The words of the theologian Thomas Fuller are appropriately fitting "it's always darkest just before the dawn". When I think of being relentless I always catch a glimpse of an old poster that hung in one of my teacher's classrooms. The hand drawn sketch was a picture of a bird holding a frog by it's hind leg preparing to drop the frog into it's mouth, the frog has reached out and grabbed the bird's long neck with it's free leg. The caption under the drawing read, "Don't ever give up!". Be relentless, when you think you can't you can, when others tell you it won't work, commit to your cause and show them it will and it can. There's a reason why the Little Train chugged along saying "I think I can, I think I can, I think I can!" The more you believe it and the more you dedicate to it the more likely it is that you will see your efforts pay off. Isaiah 30:20 provides this promise, "And though the Lord give you the bread of adversity and the water of affliction, yet your Teacher will not hide himself anymore, but your eyes shall see your Teacher." Help is on it's way be relentless!
       Stay the course! Columbus faced a world of opposition to his supposition that the world was round and that if you reached the horizon you wouldn't just fall off the flat world. In the face of opposition or when the struggle seems like it is too much to move forward this world tells you to just give up it's not worth the fight. I am here to tell you to push forward. The easy thing to do is give up. Anyone can do that. The tough thing to do is to stay the course. Push forward, and commit when it looks like and sounds like you should give in. Whether it is a relationship, a fight against an addiction, something at work, or a student that you just can't reach don't give up. Don't go it alone, seek help, find resources, reach out to the One that gives us strength and stay the course. "Do not be anxious about anything, but in every situation, by prayer and petition, with thanksgiving, present your requests to God. And the peace of God, which transcends all understanding, will guard your hearts and your minds in Christ Jesus." Philippians 4:6-7. Paul's directive to the church in Philippi are words of encouragement  that each of us need to heed when our bodies or our minds want to give up. Stay the course, you may be at the brink of success and if you quit you'll never know it! Stay the course!
     That's all I have today. I live what I share and I believe what I share. Whether this message is for you today or not, you will or you have just been through something that you had to persevere to make it to the other side. My hope and my prayer is that in some little way the words on this page today may be of encouragement to you and that when that thought of giving up creeps into your head you will keep up the good fight and see it through. It is worth the fight! Press on and keep looking towards the light!
Coach Carter