“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do,” 1 Thessalonians 5:11
The main goal of a cheerleading organization is to raise the spirits of the fans and team members of the sport they are supporting. As I look at this life, I realize there are others around you and me every day that could use some encouragement. People who need their spirits raised. Some whose lives need to be touched with a little something that will help see them through this day.
The old saying is true that you cannot judge a book by its cover. People are like that also. Day by day we walk through our normal routines. Sometimes we come across different people. Sometimes we see the same people each and every time. In meeting people there’s one thing I have come to realize, you don’t have a clue of what one may be facing on the other side of that facade.
The face that is smiling at you may be at the point of giving up. The one who is engaging you in polite conversation may have just suffered a hard blow financially. Or, any others we may see or come across on a daily basis. All we can do is look at what they show us. Sometimes, what they don’t show is there are deeper issues they are dealing with. While in the middle of those deep issues, what if they receive a word that renews, that makes them feel that everything is going to be okay in spite of what they are facing? What if one act of kindness done for them helps to ensure them they are important too, no matter what the situation is telling them, and raises their spirits?
How would we order our day, our regular routines, if we treated everyone as if they were a mission field to receive kindness? You could be the one that will help somebody else to make the decision that they will not throw in the towel. They will not give up. You and I can be that deciding factor! You can be that spiritual cheerleader that brightens the heart and lift the spirits of those who may be having a hard time in life right now.
Oh, what joy! We don’t have to know the total story of another. All we have to do is try to treat everyone who crosses our path with respect and a willingness to radiate the goodness of God onto them. Perhaps all we have to have is a kind word ready on the tongue to bless the life of another. After all, the Bible does tell us, “Death and life are in the power of the tongue . . .” (Pro. 18:21). There is power in the words we speak to others and in any encouragement we can give.
1 Thessalonians commands us to “edify one another.” That word “edify” means to build up. Or, as I like to say, to cheer on! The things we do and say in life should make people feel encouraged. It should inspire them to go on and not give up. It should show them to Whom we belong. “Let us therefore follow after the things which make for peace, and the things wherewith one may edify another,” (Rom. 14:19). It’s looking for ways to touch the life of another through encouragement.
Lift someone else today. Send out a ray of sunshine from you to them. Let them feel the warmth of the love of God in you. Let them know that there is something special in them. And, yes, make them feel that they matter. Be an encourager today! Be a spirit lifter!
There is such a thing as being swallowed up with too much sorrow (2 Corinthians 2:7). There is such a thing as sadness that seems to be too much for one to bear. There is a heaviness of heart that can weigh an individual down and under the pressure of it all – making it very hard to rise again.
So, how can we help? What can we do during the times of another’s sorrow that will show them that we care? How can we assist with the rise?
The answer is quite simple, but its simplicity can sometimes get lost in our attempt to overcomplicate what our idea of help is.
The plain and simple fact is we can simply love them. Love, like a healing balm, can cover so much of our inner being and what we feel and struggle with on the inside, and it is a gift that can touch one with a trueness of heart like nothing else can.
What you can do is show your personal, heartfelt love to such a one. Encourage them. Though their times may seem to be twisted in tendrils of travail, they have someone – they have you, who are willing to come by their side and show them love (2 Corinthians 2:8).
Although, in the two verses referenced above, the Apostle Paul is teaching about forgiving the sin of one who had done wrong, and the need to help restore them through love, I would say the principle of showing love and comfort to any who may feel overwhelmed by the battles they face, can be nicely applied as well.
The fact of the matter is, when someone is feeling down, they need a hand – or, should I say, a heart who will come alongside them to help them and just love on them. At one point or another in life, everybody needs somebody who will take us by the hand and help us rise from the heart.
“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow: but woe to him that is alone when he falleth; for he hath not another to help him up.” Ecclesiastes 4:9-10
Races can take you through many terrains. Running uphill, it’s hard. The more you go, the steeper the incline, the harder it gets. Breath after breath your chest heaves for relief. Push after push your muscles cry out for mercy. And, just when you thought you had no more in you; just when you thought you couldn’t go any farther, from behind there comes these hands out of nowhere that steadies your stride and helps propel you forward some more. On the side of you comes smiling faces with encouraging words grabbing hold of your arms and help pull you up that incline that you might finish your race. They want to help you make it.
The Apostle Paul often described our Christian life as a race (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). We run it. We press for it. But, sometimes the way gets hard and if it had not been for the grace of God, we would not have made it.
As the community of racers pushed and pulled the struggling runner uphill, so God will minister to us to help us go through our race. Often this is done through the community of believers that will come alongside the one that needs support.
In this world the struggle is real. May we, as a community of believers, recognize the support that each one needs. May we join up with our fellow Christian race runners and offer the help and encouragement they need to make it. May we see beyond our own race and allow God to use our hands and smiling faces to help bolster someone’s faith as they are striving to make it up the inclines of this life.
We all have the same goal in mind: to finish the race. We need each other to do it. As a community of believers, our job goes beyond spreading the gospel and being a light in this dark world, and all the other spiritual stuff it entails. Our job is also to seek the welfare of one another. We need to be there for one another. We need to be present and involved in the process of what they are going through “that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it,” (1 Corinthians 12:25-26).
More encouraging verses and quotes:
“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”1 Thessalonians 5:11
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”Galatians 6:2
“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow . . .”Ecclesiastes 4:9-10a
“God has chosen us to help one another.”Smith Wigglesworth
“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But… the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'”Martin Luther King, Jr.
Races can take you through many terrains. Running uphill, it’s hard. The more you go, the steeper the incline, the harder it gets. Breath after breath your chest heaves for relief. Push after push your muscles cry out for mercy. And, just when you thought you had no more in you; just when you thought you couldn’t go any farther, from behind there comes these hands out of nowhere that steadies your stride and helps propel you forward some more. On the side of you comes smiling faces with encouraging words grabbing hold of your arms and help pull you up that incline that you might finish your race. They want to help you make it.
The Apostle Paul often described our Christian life as a race (1 Corinthians 9:24-27). We run it. We press for it. But, sometimes the way gets hard and if it had not been for the grace of God, we would not have made it.
As the community of racers pushed and pulled the struggling runner uphill, so God will minister to us to help us go through our race. Often this is done through the community of believers that will come alongside the one that needs support.
In this world the struggle is real. May we, as a community of believers, recognize the support that each one needs. May we join up with our fellow Christian race runners and offer the help and encouragement they need to make it. May we see beyond our own race and allow God to use our hands and smiling faces to help bolster someone’s faith as they are striving to make it up the inclines of this life.
We all have the same goal in mind: to finish the race. We need each other to do it. As a community of believers, our job goes beyond spreading the gospel and being a light in this dark world, and all the other spiritual stuff it entails. Our job is also to seek the welfare of one another. We need to be there for one another. We need to be present and involved in the process of what they are going through “that there should be no schism in the body; but that the members should have the same care one for another. And whether one member suffer, all the members suffer with it; or one member be honoured, all the members rejoice with it,” (1 Corinthians 12:25-26).
More encouraging verses and quotes:
“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”1 Thessalonians 5:11
“Bear ye one another’s burdens, and so fulfil the law of Christ.”Galatians 6:2
“Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour. For if they fall, the one will lift up his fellow . . .”Ecclesiastes 4:9-10a
“God has chosen us to help one another.”Smith Wigglesworth
“The first question which the priest and the Levite asked was: ‘If I stop to help this man, what will happen to me?’ But… the Good Samaritan reversed the question: ‘If I do not stop to help this man, what will happen to him?'”Martin Luther King, Jr.
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