A cup of encouragement, please …

Whether you like Starbucks or not, you’d have to admit the coffee giant is always striving to innovate ways to provide for America’s caffeine addiction.

Take, for example, it’s product called “Via.” It used to be if you wanted coffee quickly, you pulled out a jar of “instant” coffee from the kitchen cabinet and just added boiling water. With Via, you just open the packet and pour the coffee ingredients into water, hot or cold.

Viola! Instant caffeine fix!

The Via packets can be easily stuffed into a pocket, purse, or backpack so you never have to worry about being without a source of coffee.

That’s nice for coffee addicts, but what about when we need something more important? Something like encouragement. What do you do when you really need to be encouraged?

Worship!

Paul and Silas once found themselves in prison because of their ministry; that’s certainly a setting in which one needs some encouragement. Instead of letting their circumstances drag them down into the depths of discouragement, they added worship to their prayers …

“Around midnight Paul and Silas were praying and singing hymns to God, and the other prisoners were listening,” Acts 16:25.

By turning our minds and hearts to the adoration and worship of the Lord, whatever the world may have turned upside-down in our world gets set right-side-up. When we come before the Lord with praise, we’re reminded that He alone is God, He’s still in control, and He always cares. From that, we are encouraged.

Feeling a little discouraged? Spend some time worshiping the Lord and see what that does for you.

Scotty