ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER

To encourage someone according to Webster means, to give courage, hope or confidence to another person.

The more you encourage, the more mature you become.  You can’t help but grow as you reach outside yourself toward others.

For example, you are hurting, but someone needs you.  As you lay aside your pain to encourage another person, you grow.  As we begin to deny ourselves, we begin to grow in the Lord.  It is knowing that we have to pull our act together because others look to us for encouragement which causes us to move more quickly then we normally would.  Otherwise we might wallow around in our pit for awhile if we knew no one was waiting for us, or depending on us.

Growth happens as you learn to express your feelings for others through encouraging them.  For some, this is not very difficult.  For others, it can be a big step and agony all the way.

 Growth continues as you learn to commit yourself to others on a long-term basis.  Maintaining an effective level of encouragement over a period of time requires patience and steadfastness on your part and does not come easy sometimes.

We sometimes fear rejection, but we grow each time we reach out to touch or hug someone.  Of course, some people are easier to hug the others.  With certain ones, we really have to stretch ourselves.  But sometimes we feel better knowing maybe they feel the same way.

 As we serve the Lord together and we encourage one another, we grow together.  If we make ourselves available we will be encouraged.  If we hide from one another we can’t help one another.  Let’s not rob each other of the growth God intends for us as we touch one another’s lives.  You will always grow by encouraging others.

 Many methods of encouragement are nonverbal, but all in all, words of encouragement are what we use the most.  Our words represent us, our feeling and our thoughts to others.  We do not always say things perfectly and the message may come out muddled and with various shades of meaning we never intended, but the spirit behind our words is what will make them precious to the hearer.  We need to choose our words carefully, especially when someone is discouraged.  To be an encouragement to someone we must be ever mindful of the power of our words, remembering to use a soft voice of encouragement. 

 On the foundation of encouragement lies the cornerstone of the emotional and spiritual health of the body of Christ.

 II Cor. 1:3-6 says, “Blessed be God, even the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies, and the God of all comfort; (4) Who comforteth us in all our tribulation, that we may be able to comfort them which are in any trouble, by the comfort wherewith we ourselves are comforted of God.