Encouragement & Healing
In the classic allegory The Pilgrim’s Progress, the main character, Christian, tumbles into the miry bog, the “slough of despond,” and struggles to get free. But the heavy burden on his back pulls him in deeper, and he begins to sink.
This image pictures what it feels like when we’re sinking in difficult circumstances—when our debts outweigh our income, when past hurts won’t heal, when discontentment marks our relationships, and when the light of heaven seems distant and dim. Discouragement, despondency, pain, suffering—these miry pits along life’s journey can pull us down into our own “slough of despond.”
Christian’s rescue came by the hand of a fellow traveler named Help . . . and the same is true for you today. Use these resources to find encouragement and healing for your own life . . . or to minister help to those you find along life’s journey.
Featured Articles
We’ve all needed to extend forgiveness to people who have hurt us. This article offers practical, biblical suggestions on how to cultivate the kind of forgiveness demonstrated by God. It also addresses what to do when we can no longer obtain forgiveness from someone we have wronged.
To all of you who teach, I salute you. Yours is an invaluable profession. It is a debt that must be discharged, a calling as sure and as high and noble as the ministry (and sometimes far more effective), a model we cannot live without if we expect each new generation to remain strong and free. Don’t quit. Don’t even slack off. Stay at it.