Encouragement

I would dare to say there isn't a single one of you who would say they never need encouragement. There are times when we feel alone, confused, discouraged, and even a bit lost. That is why we have each other.

Never though, are we told to "encourage" that it's OK we continue to fail, aren't listening to God as we should be, or aren't passionately following and sharing about Jesus Christ. So the questions I ask of you today are: How have you been encouraged? and, Who have you encouraged? according to God's Word? 

Encouragement must not always be in word only. There are many avenues of it in Scripture. The following verses are just some of the references to encouragement. See if you can discover some more are you read His Word on your own.

Today, is a day for Scripture: It, of course, says it best. I pray you read these and are encouraged today.

2 Corinthians 7:4

⁴ I have great confidence in you; I have great pride in you. I am filled with encouragement; I am overcome with joy in all our afflictions.

Ephesians 6:21-22

²¹ Tychicus, our dearly loved brother and faithful servant in the Lord, will tell you everything so that you also may know how I am and what I'm doing. ²² I am sending him to you for this very reason, to let you know how we are and to encourage your hearts.

Colossians 2:1-3

¹ For I want you to know how great a struggle I have for you, for those in Laodicea, and for all who have not seen me in person. ² [I want] their hearts to be encouraged and joined together in love, so that they may have all the riches of assured understanding, and have the knowledge of God's mystery  —Christ. ³ In Him all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge are hidden.

1 Thessalonians 2:11-12

¹¹ As you know, like a father with his own children, ¹² we encouraged, comforted, and implored each one of you to walk worthy of God, who calls you into His own kingdom and glory.

1 Thessalonians 5:5-11

 ⁵ For you are all sons of light and sons of the day. We're not of the night or of darkness. ⁶ So then, we must not sleep, like the rest, but we must stay awake and be sober. ⁷ For those who sleep, sleep at night, and those who get drunk are drunk at night. ⁸ But since we are of the day, we must be sober and put the armor of faith and love on our chests, and put on a helmet of the hope of salvation. ⁹For God did not appoint us to wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, ¹⁰ who died for us, so that whether we are awake or asleep, we will live together with Him. ¹¹ Therefore encourage one another and build each other up as you are already doing.

2 Timothy 4:1-3

 ¹ Before God and Christ Jesus, who is going to judge the living and the dead, and by His appearing and His kingdom, I solemnly charge you: ² proclaim the message; persist in it whether convenient or not; rebuke, correct, and encourage with great patience and teaching. ³ For the time will come when they will not tolerate sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, will accumulate teachers for themselves because they have an itch to hear something new.

Hebrews 3:12-14

¹² Watch out, brothers, so that there won't be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. ¹³ But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today , so that none of you is hardened by sin's deception. ¹⁴ For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.

Getting Sick

I have a cold.

These past few weeks were so fun filled that I wore myself out. Thinking back on it, I've realized that this happens every Christmas. There is so much build up to the season itself, and then the whole week after we play games, stay up very late, and eat a lot of sweets while the boys are here. All that combined means I crash afterward: They left last night and I got sick tonight. Or as I say- God hit my reset button.

It's interesting that after we have pushed ourselves too hard, too fast, that we need a rest whether it fits into our schedule or not. The only choice we have then is whether to heed the warnings and slow down or plunge ahead with a hand full of pills to cover the symptoms while we continue to over do it.

It's the same thing with listening to the Spirit. God gives us warnings but it is up to us to pay attention to them- even when it's not in our schedule. If we ignore or rationalize what we are being told to do we become more and more sick, but this time it's not a runny nose and stuffy head. It's a hardened heart.

Hebrews 3:7-15
Therefore, the Holy Spirit says:

Today if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts as in the rebellion, on the day of testing in the desert, where your fathers tested Me, tried Me, and saw my works for 40 years. 

Therefore I was provoked with this generation and said, “They always go astray in their hearts, and they have not known My ways.” So I swore in My anger, “They will not enter My rest.”

Watch out, brothers, so that there won't be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart that departs from the living God. But encourage each other daily, while it is still called today, so that none of you is hardened by sin's deception. For we have become companions of the Messiah if we hold firmly until the end the reality that we had at the start.