Reflection: “With you I am well pleased”
The joy that God the Father had in his Son was shown a second time during Jesus’ ministry on earth. It was on the Mount of Transfiguration. By now he was a public figure; enjoying what most would call success and prominence. But the Father still chose to give him affirmation.
Did Jesus need that encouragement? I would suggest not. However, there would come a time, in the not-too-distant future when he would face the greatest challenge of all — dying for the sins of the world. He would, however, embrace that mission in the wake of his Father’s affirmation.
Allow me to draw from my extensive learnings in Year 6 English. There are things called prefixes. They are two or three letters attached to the start of a word, that completely change the meaning of that word.
For example, ‘courage’, which means strength in the face of a battle, is changed when we add the letters ‘en’ at the front. It becomes encourage. ‘En’, my English teacher told me, means ‘to put into’. So, when I encourage someone, I put strength for the fight into them.
I’ve watched a lot of young men walk a little taller and believe they can embrace a significant challenge on the back of a few kind words. They’ve been encouraged.
There’s another prefix: ‘dis’. It means ‘not’…or ‘take out of’. We’ve all met a lot of people who are discouraged. Issues in life have taken away their ability to maintain the fight, no matter what the challenge is — health, finance, family, relationships or career.
A discouraged person is easily defeated. And there are far too many of them in our world. You can see it in their walk. You can hear it in their talk. Discouragement is the breeding ground for lost hope.
Prayer: Heavenly Father, today I claim the promises found in Romans 15:13: ‘May the God of hope fill you with all joy and peace as you trust in him, so that you may overflow with hope by the power of the Holy Spirit.’