Encourage

The Bible uses the word “encourage”, “encouraged”, “encouragement” and “encourages” in many places. The Holman Christian Standard Bible uses “encourage” 21 times, “encouraged” 21 times, “encouragement” 12 times, and “encourages” 1 time. Strong’s Lexicon’s Hebrew word for “encourage” is chazaq (khaw-zak'), the Greek is paramutheomai (par-am-oo-theh'-om-ahee) and protrepomai (prot-rep'-om-ahee). Both mean to comfort or exhort.

In these troubled times where everyone seems to be doing what is right in his own eyes we need to seek ways in which we can encourage one another as God encourages us. It is our responsibility to foster the well-being of each other as fellow believers.

-We find hope through our endurance and encouragement of the scriptures. Endurance means perseverance, and we persevere because of the encouragement of the Scriptures. We can only have encouragement of the Scriptures when we “feed” on them daily and absorb their many spiritual “nutrients”. That is foundational to our Christian faith and in knowing who God is.

-We gain strength when we pursue biblical Truth in our daily activities and interactions with others. We give strength when we encourage others to stay focused on the Lord and not veer off course where we’ll be derailed by the trappings of the world.

-We need to become more like Jesus. We should make it our objective to strive for excellence in everything we do, and stay away from mediocrity or lukewarmness. Likewise, we give the same support to those around us and make them feel worthy of God’s love by motivations we give them.

-We need a spirit of grace instead of a spirit that condemns. We need to help those who struggle in their weakness so they’ll make better choices. Sometimes folks go through very hard times and have many personal struggles. It can happen to any of us! So when we see someone “down on their luck”, try to be of service and help in meeting their needs.

-We can help heal the broken. Jesus stated publicly that it was His mission to bind up wounds and heal the brokenhearted. He ultimately did that on the Cross. There were many brokenhearted people who were lost and needed the Gospel and a Savior, which He preached to them during His earthly ministry. We need to remind ourselves and other people that we are no different and to look to Jesus for the message to share with those who are broken.

-We can bring hope to a hopeless world. We can rejoice to having obtained peace with God by accepting His Son as our personal Savior. We now have a real hope of eternal life and know with certainty that Jesus will bring us to Heaven.

Encouragement is a buffer against Satan. He would like nothing better than to tear us down, make us feel impotent, like we don’t belong, that we’re not really saved, and motivate us to make wrong choices or take our eyes off Jesus. Let’s be wary of him! He goes about like a roaring lion, seeking whom he may devour, but his days are numbered and he has already been defeated on the Cross. God has equipped us in every way to live victorious in Him when we completely depend upon the Holy Spirit which lives in us.