DEVOTIONAL: Our Call to Love and Encourage
Our Call to Love and Encourage
What are we doing to love and encourage others? In 1 Thessalonians 5:11 the bible tells us to “encourage one another and build each other up.” What this tells me is that encouraging others is important to God. In a world that is so difficult, it is our responsibility as a Christian to build others up and share the love of God in a broken world. Sometimes it can be easy to lose sight of this important calling when all around us is strife, indifference and division but that one act of love and encouragement could be the act that changes a life or gives someone hope. We just don’t understand what others are going through and what reaching out with the love of Christ could do for them.
Let’s be honest, it is really easy to encourage my neighbor that I adore, my mother who I love or my best friend. And yes, we should be encouraging our loved ones as often as we can. It is easy to love and encourage the people who share a common bond with us, have the same likes/interests and are kind but what about those who are rude, have different views than we do, and we just don’t like. When is the last time you tried to be the hands and feet of Christ by encouraging someone that you are completely opposite in views or a complete stranger?
A few weeks ago, God called me out of my comfort zone to love and encourage someone who has offended me in the past and who has totally different views on just about everything in life than I do. God showed me what to do and I will be honest, I sat and pondered on it a while and said, “God are you sure you want me to do this for HER?” He kept tugging at my heart until I called her. It wasn’t about me and what I was doing for her….It was about Christ and what HE was doing through me to encourage and love her. It was about sharing His love through me. It was about obedience. It was about love. It was about setting aside differences to help someone in need because that is what God has called us to do. God has dealt with me in such a way about encouraging others that I get up each morning and ask God to show me who and how I can encourage others so that HE can be glorified and to make a difference in a lost and dying world. God wants us to encourage with no restraints and just allow Him to use us so that we can express His love, compassion and kindness in all that we do and say. Just a kind word can be the encouragement that someone needs.
I encourage you today to make the very best out of every opportunity that God gives you to be an encouragement to others and to express love even in your words especially on social media. We do not know how long God will allow us to make a difference in a person’s life so make each moment count because God will enrich lives and change hearts through your obedience to Him!
Prayer of Encouragement to Others:
Dear Heavenly Father I come to you today with a servant’s heart. I ask you to show me today who I can encourage so that they may see Christ living in me. I ask you to show me how I can speak life into others and allow the joy of the Lord to be evident in my actions and in my life. Let the words of my mouth be beneficial to those who may need the encouragement today and allow your blessings to overflow so that you may be glorified. Thank you for all of your blessings in my life that allow me to bless and encourage others. Lead me today in all I do. In Jesus name I pray….Amen.
Bible verses of Encouragement
1 Timothy 6:18 “Command them to do good, to be rich in good deeds, and to be generous and willing to share.”
Galatians 6:10 “Therefore, as we have opportunity, let us do good to all people, especially to those who belong to the family of believers.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Acts 20:35 “In everything I did, I showed you that by this kind of hard work we must help the weak, remembering the words the Lord Jesus himself said: ‘It is more blessed to give than to receive.”