Are you feeling encouraged?
When was the last time you felt really encouraged by someone?
I’ve written before about the 5 different Love Languages. There’s…
- Words of Affirmation
- Acts of Service
- Receiving Gifts
- Quality Time
- Physical Touch
Out of those 5, my primary Love Language is Words of Affirmation. So spoken words, hand written cards, they go a long way in encouraging me. If you want to learn your love language, you can do that here!
Sometimes I’ll get a text message from a person in our church asking me a question about the sermon, or someone will send me a drawing they did using the sermon notes and the scripture from the day, or I’ll get a handwritten note in the mail.
Whenever that happens, that’s like handing me a check for a million dollars! That’s how encouraged I am by words of affirmation.
We all need encouragers
We all need encouragers. Especially living in a world of discouragers. We live in a world of negativity, discouragement, stress, loneliness, depression, and general sadness.
And that was true before the pandemic. If anything, the last year and a half has amplified those feelings and left many people feeling more isolated, alone, and discouraged than ever before.
Over the past year we’ve had to worry about everything from COVID, to matters of race and justice, to how to educate our children from home, to politics, to wildfires and hurricanes, to how to care for our family members living in nursing homes and staying overnight in hospitals, and the list goes on and on.
Anxiety is at an all time high in our lives. For a lot of us, we’re barely keeping our heads above water. The external pressure we feel combined with an overwhelming sense of loneliness and discouragement is often more than we can handle. And we don’t know how to tell anyone that we’re really struggling.
External Pressure = Discouragement
The good news is… We were never meant to do this life alone. God designed His church for such a time as this.
In fact, throughout history, throughout every adversity that has come against humanity, the church has been God’s hope and desire for the world.
In the letter to the Hebrews, the writer knows that these followers of Jesus are going through a difficult time. Some people have been put in prison. Some people have had their property and possessions take away from them. Some of them have been beaten. Others have been ridiculed publicly for their faith.
They were facing tremendous external pressure.
Most of us probably haven’t gone to prison for our faith this week. None of us have had our property taken, been beaten, or been ridiculed for our faith. But many of us are up under a lot of stress.
There is a tremendous amount of external pressure right now on us.
Hold on to Hope
So what do we do when we’re feeling lonely and discouraged, when there is adversity and external pressure all around us?
Listen to what the writer of Hebrews wrote to Christians some 2000 years ago…
Hebrews 10.23-25
Let us hold tightly without wavering to the hope we affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.
First and foremost… hold on to the goodness and the faithfulness of God!
We’ve talked about this before… God is good, all the time. And all the time, God is good! He can be trusted to keep his promises. He is faithful! We serve a great God with a great name and a kind heart!
Notice that it doesn’t say, “YOU should hold tightly without wavering to the hope YOU affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise. “
It says, “LET US hold tightly without wavering to the hope WE affirm, for God can be trusted to keep his promise.”
So much of Christian preaching and teaching today revolves around YOU and God. And yes, you need a deep and abiding relationship with Jesus Christ. BUT — WE were made for each other. We need each other.
The Hebrew writer is reminding the church that we need each other. We need to hold onto HOPE together and remind each other that God can be trusted to keep his promises to US. And then…
Motivate One Another
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
Let’s be honest, there are a lot of people who are trying to motivate you to do a lot of things. We are constantly being motivated to buy this or buy that. We are constantly being bombarded with messages to think this way or think that way.
But in the church, this is our goal. To motivate one another to acts of love and good works.
We have to hold on to the faithfulness of God. Motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And then, the writer of Hebrews says this to the church…
Keep Getting Together!
And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
Remember this was written to a church facing adversity and incredible external pressure. And what the writer of Hebrews is saying is that, in the middle of difficult times, WE NEED EACH OTHER!
We must not stop meeting together on a regular basis. This is why, when we did have to stop meeting because of Covid, we didn’t stop meeting! We shifted quickly to church online. It wasn’t perfect, and it will never replace being together! But what a blessing to be able to connect in some way even when we were not able to be together.
We have to continue to meet together. Why? Because if we stop meeting together we become cut off from what should be our number one source of encouragement. God’s church!
The adversity they were facing and the external pressure they were under was discouraging some of them from meeting together with God’s church as God’s church.
Their decision to stop meeting together, to no longer gather, would be FATAL to their ability to persevere in the faith through difficult times. That was true then. And that is true today!
Why? Because…
Encouragement cannot take place in isolation! One of Satan’s greatest weapons is isolation. And this is the way he works.
Spotted Hyenas
They say that Spotted Hyenas are some of the most crafty and intelligent hunters and killers on the Serengeti Plains. They work together to go after their prey.
They start by separating a mother buffalo and her calf from the herd. And then, they’ll separate the mother and the calf from each other. At this point, the calf is doomed. There’s too many hyenas working together for the calf to defend itself. Even though they are smaller, there’s too many. And they’re too fast.
As long as the calf is able to stay with the herd, it’s protected. But as soon as it becomes isolated and alone, it’s dead.
The same could be said of us. As long as we stay connected to the church, we can flourish, and thrive, and live. But as soon as we become disconnected and we’re on our own, chances are we’ll become discouraged, lonely, and unable to defend ourselves from the ENEMY coming to destroy us!
The church, at it’s best, is the best place to be encouraged and to be an encourager. The grace of God reminds us that the ground is level at the foot of the cross. So church is a place of NO Judgement and Mutual Encouragement.
Anytime YOU make the decision to STOP meeting together, to no longer gather, it can be FATAL to your ability to persevere in the faith!
Be an Encourager
Somebody needs you to encourage them. And YOU need someone to encourage you.
This is a part of us OneAnothering.
What we do when someone asks us how we’re doing is we say, “I’m fine.” But the truth is, even when we are fine, we can always use some encouragement.
So here’s what I want you to do today. Take a moment to encourage someone. Call, text, or find someone near you and tell them this…
You are loved.
You are important.
I am thankful for you.
God has a plan for your life.
Words have power.
Why do we sometimes hold back from speaking words of encouragement, words of praise? I don’t know.
Why are we sometimes critical of each other and quick to say things that are hurtful to each other? I don’t know.
But I DO KNOW this… words of ENCOURAGEMENT are powerful. And there is someone who needs you to encourage them today.
We need to ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER. When we do, we’re reminded that we were not meant to do this life alone. That we are Better Together!
If Jesus walked in the room today, what would he do?
I believe he would look each one of us in the eye, put his hand on our shoulder, and speak encouraging words into our lives. He might even say, You are loved. You are important. I am thankful for you. God has a plan for your life.
If that’s what Jesus would say, what if we allowed Jesus to say that through us to each other?
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