Many, if not most, Americans have an appreciation for sports; one might say that it’s often an enthusiasm if they have a favorite team or they have a personal relationship with someone on a team. My youngest daughter has been playing softball for several seasons now; I’ve attended quite a few practices and many games. I’ve witnessed several types of “encouragers” and have heard various chants and cheers – perhaps better called chants and jeers. I strongly discourage my daughter from taking part in those jeers – they serve no purpose but to make fun of others or to throw-off the pitcher. At the same time, I encourage her to recognize and acknowledge good hits or plays, regardless of which team that player is on. I want her to learn to be a “Barnabas,” the “Son of Encouragement” or the “Son of Exhortation,” in good times or bad, winning or losing. If we allow our circumstances to get us down, it’s very difficult to encourage others while we, ourselves, are discouraged!
It’s more than training her for good sportsmanship; my desire is for her to learn, for life, not to put others down and to encourage all those she interacts with. Truly, it’s a matter of putting the “Golden Rule” into practice: “Therefore all things whatsoever ye would that men should do to you, do ye even so to them: for this is the law and the prophets.”
Encouragement, the right kind, can do wonders for another who is giving it their best but becoming weary. One never knows how our kind words or coming alongside to help will not only boost the other’s morale, but, perhaps, give them the extra persistence they need to make it through to the end. I recently read about a man who attended a rope-climbing contest. “The course was made up of an arrangement of rope, rubber tires, and sticks, and it reached a breathtaking height of sixty feet. Each of its four sections got harder, with the highest section being the most difficult. If a contestant managed to reach the top, he would ring the little bell there and receive a prize.”
The writer shared how these young men would attack the course with great energy and vigor, climbing quickly at first, with determination, only to give up at varying stages as the course got tougher and they got tired out. Then “another young man started to climb and rose higher and higher. At one point he seemed ready to give up, but then his daddy started shouting words of encouragement. ‘Don’t give up; you’re almost there; you can do it!’ And in triumph the young man reached the top and rang the bell.” Can you imagine how this father’s words not only encouraged his son on to victory, but how this type of encouraging interaction must have encouraged their relationship as well?
Likely, all of us could “Barney up” a little better; coming alongside with words of truth and encouragement. Of course, it’s vital in our individual families and in our churches, but let’s also speak into the lives of strangers that the Lord puts in our path. Let’s be loving, encouraging, and truth-telling. Such a witness may bring others to Christ, snatching them from the gates of Hell. It may also keep others from falling and, in so doing, we encourage ourselves to stand stronger and steadfast. We are not “Sons of Encouragement or Exhortation” in our own strength; it is the gift and grace of God for the use of winning and helping others – all to the health of the Body of Christ and to the glory of God!
When you find yourself discouraged, remember that even that great, Old Testament prophet Elijah had gotten discouraged. Allow others to come alongside you with exhortation; allow the Lord to encourage you.
As you read the Decency Minute scripts below (or listen to Bill Johnson narrate them by clicking on the titles), you’ll find encouragement in the first Decency Minute, a word of exhortation for your journey in holiness in the second, and, in the third, a word of warning which one can use as a springboard for thinking, warning, and encouraging others on our journey into the near future.
If we want to Make America Great Again, we’ll need to Make America Godly Again.
Militarily speaking, it appears that we’re headed in the right direction. Not only are we awakening from the WOKE slumber the left had put us under, but Defense Secretary Pete Hegseth led a “Prayer and Worship Service,” stating it’ll become a monthly Pentagon event.
His prayer, in part, was: “King Jesus, we come humbly before you, seeking your face, seeking your grace, in humble obedience to your law and to your Word. We come as sinners saved only by that grace, seeking your providence in our lives and in our nation. Lord God, we ask for, … in each and every circumstance, the courage to do what is right in obedience to your will. It is in the name of our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ, that we pray… amen.”
As my wife diligently weeds her flower garden, it reminds me of how much sin is like a weed. It’s far easier to stop its effect if it’s ripped out before it has a chance to take root and spread.
Battling sin in our lives is part of the pursuit of holiness. As Christians we’re to root out sin and live distinctively from the world.
Yet “holiness” is a word seldom heard – even in many churches. Many American Christians seemingly live no different than non-Christians – addicted to unwholesome entertainment and consumed with laying up treasures on earth. Too often believers pursue worldliness and shun holiness – instead of the other way around.
Just as with a garden, holiness must be cultivated and sin must be rooted out – the two can’t co-exist. Don’t let the weeds in your life take hold, but be imitators of Christ and His righteousness.
Every day, we get up in the morning and get our milk from the same refrigerator, put our bread in the same toaster, start up the same car and drive under the same stoplights. All of this mundane use of the same old technology masks the fact that we are living on the brink of a technological revolution.
Every week there are headlines like this:
“Elon Musk: ‘Tens of Billions’ of Humanoid Robots Will Exist by 2040”
and
“John Deere Addresses Farm Labor Shortages With Autonomous Tractors”
Autonomous tractors? Humanoid robots? Artificial Intelligence?
These are the subjects of science fiction!
As humanity tries to navigate through all these changes, may we avoid the mistake of the industrial revolution.
Let us remember that no matter what new capabilities and advancements we see in coming days, there is only One God – it’s not us and it’s NOT AI.
Matthew Henry on encouragement:
“Mutual helpfulness is a brotherly duty…Christ’s soldiers should thus strengthen one another’s hands in their spiritual warfare. The strong must succour and help the weak. Those that through grace are conquerors over temptation must counsel and comfort and pray for those that are tempted…The members of the natural body help one another (I Cor. 12:21).”
“By what the prophet said he perceived that his former attempts for reformation were well pleasing to God and, therefore, he revived them and did what was then left undone. It is good when commendations thus quicken us to our duty and when the more we are praised for doing well, the more vigorous we are in well doing. – II Chronicles 19”
“And let us not be weary in well doing: for in due season we shall reap, if we faint not.” Galatians 6:9
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