This year has been a rough one. Health issues. Family matters. Financial challenges. Loss. Uncertainty of the future. I’m so thankful for those God has brought into my life to walk alongside me during this year. Fellow believers who have prayed for me, checked up on me, provided for me, encouraged me. Just this weekend, as I faced a moment of despair, I was able to pick up the phone and call my dear sister in Christ and offload the heartache of the moment. But what happens when there is no one around? When a phone call is not an option. When physical distance separates us from others. Where can we turn when we desperately need encouragement with no one in sight or available?

Those times come for me in the middle of the night. I would be awake and find myself meditating on my problems and unable to get back to sleep. Sometimes tear-filled nights and all kinds of possibilities circulating in my mind. Calling a friend or going over to someone’s house were not options at that hour. But I had something even better in that moment: the word of God. Romans 15:4 says, “For whatever was written in former days was written for our instruction, that through endurance and through the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope.”

Not only are the Scriptures there to guide us on how to live godly lives but also to encourage and instill hope in us. There is a song called Still Waters by Leanna Crawford which reminds us of this particular purpose of Scripture. The very first verse of her song speaks to a role Scripture can have in our lives:

Great Aunt Maurine said at a hundred and three

Write scripture on your heart for when you need it

Cause anxiety hates Psalm 23

So just say it to yourself ‘til you believe it

And I’m feeling like I’m needing it right now

Yes, Scripture can be a source of encouragement. Even better is Scripture that is imprinted on our hearts. The Holy Spirit can then call to mind the very verses that fit the situations we find ourselves in. The word of God can be the balm we need at that precise moment; better than a phone call or a visit that is dependent on the availability of another. Scriptures that have found a home in a heart make encouragement never far but ever so close and ready to give hope at any time!