Be aware that your people will often have problems beyond your knowledge and power.
Is it God's time to heal or to test faith by affliction?
Is this mental illness or demonic oppression or a mixture?
Is it fitting and redemptive for there to be a separation from a spouse?
Will we be presented blameless before the throne or judged for our good and bad works?
Take heart that the best are often perplexed.
2 Corinthians 4:8 "We are afflicted in every way, but not crushed; perplexed, but not despairing."
Galatians 4:20 "I could wish to be present with you now and to change my tone, for I am perplexed about you."
Take heart that the Spirit prays for you when you do not know how.
Romans 8:26 "In the same way the Spirit also helps our weakness; for we do not know how to pray as we should, but the Spirit Himself intercedes for us with groanings too deep for words; and He who searches the hearts knows what the mind of the Spirit is, because He intercedes for the saints according to the will of God"
John 14:16 "And I will ask the Father, and He will give you anotherParaklete, that He may be with you forever." (Who is the "other" one? 1 John 2:1)
Take heart that all things work together for good for the called who love God.
Romans 8:28 "And we know that God causes all things to work together for good to those who love God, to those who are called according to his purpose." (Note connection with Romans 8:26-27.)
An explicit, "I love you," is always wise and relevant and often powerful.
1 Corinthians 16:24 "My love be with you all in Christ Jesus. Amen."
2 Corinthians 2:4 "For out of much affliction and anguish of heart I wrote to you with many tears; not that you should be made sorrowful, but that you might know the love which I have especially for you."
2 Corinthians 12:15 "And I will most gladly spend and be expended for your souls. If I love you the more, am I to be loved the less?"
1 Thessalonians 2:7-8 "But we proved to be gentle among you, as a nursing mother tenderly cares for her own children. 8 Having thus a fond affection for you, we were well-pleased to impart to you not only the gospel of God but also our own lives, because you had become very dear to us."
Believe in the power of God's truth to change lives.
John 8:32 "and you shall know the truth, and the truth shall make you free."
1 Corinthians 6:15-20 "Do you not know that your bodies are members of Christ? Shall I then take away the members of Christ and make them members of a harlot? May it never be! 16Or do you not know that the one who joins himself to a harlot is one body with her? For He says, "The two will become one flesh." 17 But the one who joins himself to the Lord is one spirit with Him. 18 Flee immorality. Every other sin that a man commits is outside the body, but the immoral man sins against his own body. 19Or do you not know that your body is a temple of the Holy Spirit who is in you, whom you have from God, and that you are not your own? 20 For you have been bought with a price: therefore glorify God in your body.
Ask God for wisdom and power in the personal application of his truth.
Example of my recent use of Colossians 2:9-10 "For in Him all the fullness of Deity dwells in bodily form, 10 and in Him you have been made complete, and He is the head over all rule and authority."
