Daily Journal: 11 September

Invest and Encourage

What does encouragement mean to you?

We all need encouragement on different occasions but we don’t always know when another might be needing it.

We can remember when someone said an encouraging word to us at just the right moment, and many times they may not even have been aware of the impact they made.

However, the bible calls us to be aware; to invest in each other and each other’s faith.

1 Thessalonians 5:11 (GWT)

Therefore, encourage each other and strengthen one another as you are doing.

In order to strengthen one another, we must first know how another needs strengthening. We must know what is making them feel weak or discouraged. That means we’re sharing confidences.

Hebrews 10:24-25 (GNT)

Let us be concerned for one another, to help one another to show love and to do good. Let us not give up the habit of meeting together, as some are doing. Instead, let us encourage one another all the more, since you see that the Day of the Lord is coming nearer.

We need to choose to be concerned for one another. Even those we may not normally be in close relationship with. If we have a conversation with another and something comes to our attention for a need they have, that is our cue to help them, to show love and to do good; to invest in their cause.

We all become fainthearted at times. We all feel weak at times. And we all make mistakes. Just as we invest in another’s cause and in the building up of their faith, we need to receive that from others.

1 Thessalonians 5:14 (ESV)

And we urge you, brothers, admonish the idle [the disorderly or undisciplined], encourage the fainthearted, help the weak, be patient with them all.

To admonish is to warn. It’s not always easy to warn someone or to receive a warning. It’s not always well received. We are not to be harsh so as not to stir up anger (Proverbs 15:1) but warning helps in a weakness; perhaps a behaviour is masking something else that, after admonishing, we may be able to encourage or be encouraged.

Patiently walking alongside each other builds bridges, shows belief and invests in one another’s faith. This is what we are called to do.