Encouragement : Jonathan Crabtree
This sunday Dave Niblock spoke an amazing word in the evening about encouragement and how it can be the difference between life and death and I agree with that whole heartedly, so Im going to carry on from where I left off on my last post, the joy of relationships and continue to go deeper into that but from this perspective of "encouragement".
Encouragement in its rawest nature is to en-courage or to give courage. Now courage in not an under valued commodity, everyone understands how important it is and often we all think we need more of it, but I for sure have never connected that to encouragement, and yet thinking about it deeper the very thing encouragement does is fill you up with more courage when you are feeling low on it. This is so important in your relationships around you. Im going to ask you the question, do your friends fill you with courage and speak words of strength into your life, or do they do the opposite? because there are only two options, encouragement and discouragement, there is no mid ground. You need to root yourself into an atmosphere of encouragement and life to put you at the optimum strength level. Everyone needs strength to get through life. Life in its nature takes away your courage, it wears you out knocks you down, tells you you wont amount to anything, when the truth is that in christ we are more than conquerers! So to stop those lies taking over your life you need to take control, and the best way of doing that is by surrounding yourself with people who believe that to and know it, so you can remind each other and keep your heads up! We should all be working as a unit for the same cause, and that is gods cause, to love god before all else and to love others as you do yourself. If you are with people who have that goal in their heart then that will naturally encourage that spirit, however in the same way any part of your life can be encouraged in the same way. If you surround yourself with sport fanatics, you will grow a love for sport. If you surround yourself with Fashion fanatics, you will grow a love for fashion. If you surround yourself with Jesus fanatics, you will grow a love for Jesus. If you surround yourself with gossip fanatics you will grow a love for gossip. If you surround yourself with hate fanatics, you will grow a love for hate. Now don't get me wrong, im not saying if there are people out there that you know who gossip or hate you should ignore them and never speak to them, because as I said, our aim is to love others and that doesn't fulfil that purpose, however there is a difference between people you are friendly with and friends. You need to talk to those people, get to know them, but don't let them get in a position where they influence you, don't put your roots in them, because they will encourage the wrong things in your life, and discourage the right things in your life. Even good people who aren't christians can discourage you without even meaning to. Its just to do with perspectives on life. To put yourself in the best position possible you need to put your roots in people you know are on fire for god, and who know the plans god has for them, that is when your life will be encouraged to the max, and then you can take that courage and encourage those people who you are friendly with.
Another thing to remember is to keep encouraging your friends. It can be so easy to take people for granted and let them go on without letting them know what they mean to you like I was saying in my previous post, and encouragement is a powerful tool in those circumstances, If your friends are going through a tough time or working hard for something, encourage them, even if it looks like they have it all together, let them know they can do it, give them a boost, it can make all the difference.
Something great that dave said on sunday was that one second of encouragement before is worth an hour of praise after. And this statement is so true. Don't wait for your friends to arrive and then applaud them, give them a boost to the top and help them to get there. Life isn't all about where you end up, its about the journey, and you remember the people who have encouraged you, you don't remember the people who praise you. Thats just worth thinking about.
My prayer for you today is that you would understand the power of encouragement, that you would see the difference between encouraging people and discouraging people, and that you would give them the strength to do something about it. I pray that you would seek out your friends and encourage them, but also thank them for the encouragement that you have received from them in the past, And I pray that you wouldn't take your friends for granted, but love them and encourage them for the whole journey of life, and not just on the highs. Amen.
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