Encourage!
Encouraging yourself and others is a great responsibility, and a good word said in the right moments is crucial!
Do you remember the good words someone said to you? Do you remember those people who always have a good word for you? You surely do! If you have such people in your life,that is no doubt a great blessing and you must cherish them! The Bible describes how Jesus told Peter before his betrayal that Satan asked "to sift you as wheat. But I have prayed for you, Simon, that your faith may not fail. And when you have turned back, strengthen your brothers." Luke 22:31-32 Obviously, Satan wants to destroy with his actions yet, God's children are overcomes like Christ and when you have victory over that circumstance, you surely can encourage the people who are just going through it now!
In the Bible there are numerous places where we are told to encourage one another and we even see that encouragement is a gift of the Holy Spirit. "We must also consider how to encourage each other to show love and to do good things." Hebrew 10:24
Encouraging one another and building each other up is a work of God and precious gift given to humanity by Christ's Sacrifice that brought us all the other gifts as well. This is the apostle's teaching regarding encouragement as a gift of the Holy Spirit: "If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly." Romans 12:8 We are told to use it, finding ways to encourage on purpose! Do you remember when you needed a confirmation one time, and when it came, you felt so comforted! A beautiful similarity in this sense is made one of Solomon's proverbs :"A word spoken in right circumstances is like apples of gold in settings of silver".
The circumstances we are going trough are not only to train ourselves in the battle, they are used for the people God put in our lives so that they can also be built up and elevated by what we've experienced. Nevertheless, the difference between what you experience for yourself and what others tell you, is significantly big, but, when your test time comes, what others have overcome becomes a great source of encouragement for you!
Other people have it as a gift: to encourage, to lift up someone is a splendid gift! We all need it! You can recognize these people with the gift of encouragement by the fact that they always have a smile for someone, always have a good word to say, always find the good in a situation. In fact it is a pleasure to be around them because you feel elevated, you start believing that everything will work out for the better in your own situation. Yet, even if we don't have encouragement as a gift, we are still told to find ways, to think of modalities of building others up. We need to be inventive to put our love at work in the life of others. Maybe we don't have anything else to give, but a good word spoken in time can represent the difference between life and death for someone, is that lifesaving balm. Oh how precious!
On the other hand, discouragement is the work of the devil; have you noticed how easy it is to see the bad in something and how difficult is sometimes to find the good? Especially in marriage, isn't it easier to discourage? Have you seen how complicated it seems at times to build your partner up? Devil is the one who destroys, stay away from those words or attitudes that hurt others' feelings, don't be a participant in Satan's poisonous web! Also be aware that if you choose to discourage - in other words you build Satan's web - you are the one who'll firstly be intoxicated by this action! It is you who'll end up hurt and full of poison, not the one you discourage! That's why pray for vigilance and don't let yourself dragged into this trap because even if it doesn't seem like a big deal at first, a repeated action leads to a hardening of the heart and in the end your heart will end up basically dead. Satan doesn't love the people whom he uses! Don't be deceived! He hates all people so keep away from his works and one of the ways to do that is to build up others and not to tear them down.
A privilege and a gift, a sign of being close to God, encouraging others is a very profitable business because people will always remember how you made them feel and what's more, God will make sure you will have a good word from someone when you'll need it!
In the Bible there are numerous places where we are told to encourage one another and we even see that encouragement is a gift of the Holy Spirit. "We must also consider how to encourage each other to show love and to do good things." Hebrew 10:24
Encouraging one another and building each other up is a work of God and precious gift given to humanity by Christ's Sacrifice that brought us all the other gifts as well. This is the apostle's teaching regarding encouragement as a gift of the Holy Spirit: "If your gift is to encourage others, be encouraging. If it is giving, give generously. If God has given you leadership ability, take the responsibility seriously. And if you have a gift for showing kindness to others, do it gladly." Romans 12:8 We are told to use it, finding ways to encourage on purpose! Do you remember when you needed a confirmation one time, and when it came, you felt so comforted! A beautiful similarity in this sense is made one of Solomon's proverbs :"A word spoken in right circumstances is like apples of gold in settings of silver".
The circumstances we are going trough are not only to train ourselves in the battle, they are used for the people God put in our lives so that they can also be built up and elevated by what we've experienced. Nevertheless, the difference between what you experience for yourself and what others tell you, is significantly big, but, when your test time comes, what others have overcome becomes a great source of encouragement for you!
Other people have it as a gift: to encourage, to lift up someone is a splendid gift! We all need it! You can recognize these people with the gift of encouragement by the fact that they always have a smile for someone, always have a good word to say, always find the good in a situation. In fact it is a pleasure to be around them because you feel elevated, you start believing that everything will work out for the better in your own situation. Yet, even if we don't have encouragement as a gift, we are still told to find ways, to think of modalities of building others up. We need to be inventive to put our love at work in the life of others. Maybe we don't have anything else to give, but a good word spoken in time can represent the difference between life and death for someone, is that lifesaving balm. Oh how precious!
On the other hand, discouragement is the work of the devil; have you noticed how easy it is to see the bad in something and how difficult is sometimes to find the good? Especially in marriage, isn't it easier to discourage? Have you seen how complicated it seems at times to build your partner up? Devil is the one who destroys, stay away from those words or attitudes that hurt others' feelings, don't be a participant in Satan's poisonous web! Also be aware that if you choose to discourage - in other words you build Satan's web - you are the one who'll firstly be intoxicated by this action! It is you who'll end up hurt and full of poison, not the one you discourage! That's why pray for vigilance and don't let yourself dragged into this trap because even if it doesn't seem like a big deal at first, a repeated action leads to a hardening of the heart and in the end your heart will end up basically dead. Satan doesn't love the people whom he uses! Don't be deceived! He hates all people so keep away from his works and one of the ways to do that is to build up others and not to tear them down.
A privilege and a gift, a sign of being close to God, encouraging others is a very profitable business because people will always remember how you made them feel and what's more, God will make sure you will have a good word from someone when you'll need it!
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