"How
do you know if someone needs encouragement? If they are breathing.” Truett Cathy, founder of @ChickfilA
One of my favorite things to do is to encourage the
people that I come in contact with. It
often becomes evident that the words or occasion is something that God brought
our way. It made a difference for me and
the other person.
To encourage someone may be the very thing that
allows them to meet God, to hear His truth and to open their lives to greater
days. We need to take every opportunity
to be an encourager and to help others be stronger and better.
The definition of “encourage” goes like this: it is
to give somebody hope or confidence or to urge somebody to do something. We can encourage people in many different
ways. It can come through come a
conversation. It may come through a
handwritten card or an email. It may
come through a listening ear or a Scripture shared. Encouragement comes when we open our hearts
and lives to other people.
Here is a definition that I have come to: An action
taken from one person by design to influence another person because of
something we know, have experienced or strongly believe. Encouragement is a choice we have to
make. It is when we choose to make a
difference in someone else’s life.
Therefore encourage
one another and build up one another, just as you also are doing.
As you are already doing … Many people I know live a
life of encouragement. Daily they are
making a difference in the lives of their family, friends and those they come
in contact with. This word says keep on
doing what you are doing. It is
important.
We urge you, brethren, admonish the unruly, encourage the fainthearted, help the
weak, be patient with everyone.
Find these people and do something to make their
lives better … admonish the unruly, fainthearted, weak, be patient … none of
those are life threatening, yet there are things that take our minds to places
of death. Encouragement changes the
direction people are headed. Praise God
for the courage He places in our lives through His son.
Encourage the exhausted, and strengthen the feeble.
Have you ever been exhausted or feeble? Most of us have. Find something that needs encouragement and
give it. Who outside your normal,
everyday routine needs to be given hope and confidence? Find them.
Encourage them. It will make a
difference!
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