Encouraging Encounters

Encourage-give support, confidence, or hope to someone. To put a smile on someone’s face, to warm an individual’s heart.

Encounter-an unexpected or casual meeting with someone or something.

Have you known the power of encouragement in your life? I have. Encouragement is a wonderful gift to receive. Especially, when it’s the kind that comes from the heart. I have a friend who always says, “In all the recovery meetings I have ever been to, I have never, ever heard somebody say that they were in recovery because they had been encouraged too much.” You know, that just makes good sense. We all have a need to be encouraged, and I have never heard of anyone who has overdosed on encouragement.

God’s Word is the best encouragement prescription I could ever write were I to advise you on the matter. There is nothing in this world like it. Believe me when I tell you that every morning before the phone rings, chores need doing, or the family and work obligations arise, I need to be encouraged. And because you’re not ready to encourage me either, probably, I must find it for myself. Oh, what beautiful words of love the Psalms are filled with. I have a few favorites that I daily turn to for satisfaction. Psalm 1, 23, 34, and 37 are just a few that I would suggest. I hope you are familiar with at least these, and even have others that you cling to for daily counsel.

Speaking of counsel, encouragement is not a one-way street. There are many others in our lives today who need it even more than we do, if they’re not so inclined or mature enough in their walk with Christ to get it for themselves. In Romans 12 the Bible tells us that after we’ve spent our time with the Lord (Offering our bodies as a living sacrifice) and His word (Renewing our minds) to seize the day in the name of Christ looking to use the gifts that God has given us. Encouragement is a big one right there in the list. It says for us to love deeply from the center of who we are. That means getting out of our fleshly overcoat and seeking out, on purpose, encounters with others. What better way than to bless someone with unexpected, encouraging words?

Will you look for someone to encourage, today? Will you go even further than this? Will you look for many people to encourage each and every day? If you do, I’ll bet you’ll discover that when it’s your turn to need this all-powerful force of encouragement, you won’t be in short supply.

Be blessed and remember that when people are talking negatively about you on earth, there are, three yet One, talking warmly of you in heaven—Father, Son, and Holy Spirit.