“And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle, encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.”
1 Thessalonians 5:14 ESV
The only way to discern the idle from the fainthearted and weak is to listen.
To be idle is selfishly lazy.
To be fainthearted is discouraged.
To be weak is physically limited.
The truly lazy need exhortation. In this case the “you can do so much better than this!” lecture is an act of love.
But the fainthearted need something different: encouragement. Why are they discouraged? What’s the source? And what Biblical truth or display of godly beauty do they need to have their hope renewed?
And for the weak... I am thinking of my fellow sufferers, everyone with an autoimmune disorder or chronic migraines or low thyroids or leaky guts or toxic overloads or burned out adrenals or lyme or crohn’s or POTS or fibromyalgia or endometriosis or any type of physical disability or anyone struggling with any of these who is still undiagnosed.
I know well the hurt of being admonished as lazy, when I was simply weak. I know the discouragement of receiving “emotional support” when what I really needed was a strong set of hands to help me back on my feet.
You are not alone.
God is not judging you.
He knows you need to be heard,
and He knows you need help.
May we all be listening.
Published on YouTube February 27th 2019
