I have been thinking about the word encourage lately. We are nearing the Olympic games and I cannot stop but think of the athletes competing. I admire their dedication and passion for their sport. I think about their parents, friends and coaches that must have encouraged, supported, cheered them on over the years. I am sure they will be nervous and excited with the possibility of those athletes getting medals during the games. I am also certain that many will be disappointed. Perhaps nerves will get the better of them or an injury (I hope they will all be safe). There will be times when they will doubt their abilities and fear they can no longer do their best.

I wonder what a parent or coach might say to them. Perhaps they will remind them of all the sacrifices they made. The missed holidays, parties, fun times with friends, because they were training hour after hour. They might remind them of the previous competitions they won and those glorious moments they were recognised up on the podium receiving a medal! Some may say “you have come so far! look! you are almost there!” in an attempt to refocus their eyes on the game.

How do we, as Christians, followers of the Lord Jesus, encourage one another as we walk this earth?

Keep counting your blessings

Encouragement comes in many different ways depending on the situation we are facing. When all is well, we encourage one another by reminding one another we see the growth and the blessings received. We keep counting the blessings and recounting it.

The apostle Paul encourages the saints in Colossi in his letter to them:

³ We always thank God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, when we pray for you, ⁴ because we have heard of your faith in Christ Jesus and of the love you have for all God’s people— ⁵ the faith and love that spring from the hope stored up for you in heaven and about which you have already heard in the true message of the gospel ⁶ that has come to you. In the same way, the gospel is bearing fruit and growing throughout the whole world—just as it has been doing among you since the day you heard it and truly understood God’s grace. ⁷ You learned it from Epaphras, our dear fellow servant, who is a faithful minister of Christ on our behalf, ⁸ and who also told us of your love in the Spirit.⁹ For this reason, since the day we heard about you, we have not stopped praying for you. We continually ask God to fill you with the knowledge of his will through all the wisdom and understanding that the Spirit gives,¹⁰ so that you may live a life worthy of the Lord and please him in every way: bearing fruit in every good work, growing in the knowledge of God, ¹¹ being strengthened with all power according to his glorious might so that you may have great endurance and patience, ¹² and giving joyful thanks to the Father, who has qualified you to share in the inheritance of his holy people in the kingdom of light. ¹³ For he has rescued us from the dominion of darkness and brought us into the kingdom of the Son he loves, ¹⁴ in whom we have redemption, the forgiveness of sins. Colossians 1:3-13 (emphasis mine)

Paul prays for them and at the same time tells them to remember, to look back and count their blessings. Verses 13 and 14. God rescued them and brought them into His family. What an amazing blessing to be counted!

We can do the same. We can remind one another when all is well that God has rescued us and given us sonship through adoption. We can also intentionally point out to one another the good things God has given us each day. Be it our health, our family, our jobs, finances, friends, the needed rain to water the earth, the comfort of a home. His word which we can open freely (at the moment).

We sometimes have the tendency to think that encouragement is only for those who are going through trials. We will talk about it below. Encouragement to keep our focus on Jesus is needed all the time, especially, when all goes well. Lest we start thinking that all is well because we have managed to do the “right” thing, or we have learnt to trust in God more, or we have not fallen into the same temptations and mistakes and we are doing ok, thank you very much! When all is well, is when we are tempted to forget that everything we have comes from the Father above. All the blessings we have, even the trust we put in Him, comes from Him.

By reminding one another to count our blessings we are reminding one another to look at the One who gives them to us.

Keep rejoicing in the midst of trials

Encouragement, in the midst of trials or difficulties of any sort, becomes much harder to give and to receive. Some of us might think that the best thing is not to say anything, we might fear saying the wrong thing and make things worse (there is some wisdom in that!). We must first look into our own hearts. What is my motivation to speak to this dear sister? Do I see the pain and want to help her to be reminded of God’s love and goodness? Do I want to show compassion and love? We must pray that God will give us the right motivation to encourage one another.

Others might want to encourage but don’t know how. We need to remind one another that God sent the Holy Spirit to live in us. We can ask Him to help us love one another and encourage others well.

We can start by looking back and counting the blessings. We have every reason to rejoice in all circumstances. Peter tells us in his letter to persecuted Christians in Asia Minor (modern Turkey) that God has chosen us since before time began. He rescued us, and gave us His Spirit in order that we can obey Jesus. We have been sprinkled with His blood and we have been given an inheritance that will NEVER perish, spoil or fade. We have a Living Hope. See 1 Peter 1:1-5.

Peter has also told us our suffering is temporary and it has a purpose.

 ⁶ In all this you greatly rejoice, though now for a little while you may have had to suffer grief in all kinds of trials. ⁷ These have come so that the proven genuineness of your faith—of greater worth than gold, which perishes even though refined by fire—may result in praise, glory and honor when Jesus Christ is revealed. 1 Peter 1:6-7 (emphasis mine)

Whatever suffering we are going through at the moment will pass. When we are going through it our faith is being refined. As we hold on to Jesus we bring honor and glory to His name. We need to be reminded of this great truth. Even though it hurts and we may not see better days, our suffering really is temporary, like a mist, compared to our inheritance, the promise we have in God that we will spend all eternity in the presence of our Maker.

We must keep on rejoicing in the fact that God is good and He delights in us. He is working in us even through the moments when we cannot see Him.

Keep shifting your gaze back to Jesus

Knowing that our suffering has a purpose and is temporary does not mean we have to ignore it. It does not mean that we must pretend all is well and always have a smile on our faces.

We need to keep shifting our gaze back to Jesus. He is our Living Hope and He has promised He will be with us every day of our lives. He has given us His Spirit. How do we gaze upon our maker?

Reading the Psalms is a good place to start. We can see in many Psalms that those writing them were pouring their hearts to God and recognising His character, His sovereignty and His power.

We can pray for one another and with one another. Pray through Psalms. Pray with tears running down our faces and hearts that desire to be more like Jesus. Hearts that desire to shout “You are a good and gracious God”!

Singing is another great way to encourage one another. Sing together or send songs that might help us to gaze upon our Lord and be reminded that He has saved us. He loves us. He cares for us. He has bought us with the precious blood of His Son.

Revisit a Gospel. It is in the Gospels that we meet Jesus through each verse. We see Him walking, talking, eating, sharing the Father, teaching the crowds and performing many signs and wonders. We see Him giving His life for us and being raised from the dead in power. He shows us how to be compassionate, kind, good, obedient. loving.

Whatever the situation we might find ourselves, lets not forget to encourage one another to keep on gazing upon Jesus. There is no one better than Him and He loves us.

Be encouraged my friend.

God bless.

_{Photo by Joel Muniz on Unsplash}