Helen Thorne is the Director of Training and Resources at Biblical Counselling UK. She is an experienced speaker, counsellor and author.
Simply letting people know that something has happened is not necessarily boastful. Passing on information – encouraging people to rejoice as we rejoice – are admirable calls. Simple sharing is not what we are talking about here. It’s when we are puffing ourselves up – angling for people to respond with sentiments like “you’re amazing” that we find ourselves on dodgy ground.
In his latest book, Weakness Our Strength, John Hindley encourages us to think about weakness in a new and exciting way.
As Psalm 20 says, "we trust in the name of the LORD our God." We do not trust in a random concept of God – we trust in the one whose character (name) can be seen in God’s word, and we trust in the one who is in relationship with us (LORD) by virtue of his covenant love.
How easy is it, for some of us, to assume that a piece of advice – or a thoughtful Bible study – that helped one person, is bound to help another? So, we whip it out, unthinkingly, hoping to play a trump card that solves the problem and sends the person away rejoicing in the Lord, so we can get on with our day.
Songs nudge us to turn to our brothers and sisters in Christ and sing to them in ways that help them keep going too.