I am not sure how long I have been praying about this because my prayer journals have been unorganized in three different locations, but this has been something I have been praying about for a few weeks. I wanted to write about accountability but instead while in Church God showed me something different: encouragement.
Now encouragement is not by any means easy for me! Constantly I was told what to do, how it needed to get done, and if it wasn't enough to try harder while I was growing up. Very little did I hear or feel encoureagement in the manner that Jesus calls us to encourage. When I am around other brothers and sisters in Christ I have a hard time 'encouraging' them. So recently I have felt God saying pick up the Bible and find how to be an encourager, so what did I do?...I picked up my Bible and went to the concordenance and looked up the word encourage, encouragement, and Barnabas. Let's begin with who Barnabas is.
Who is he, where does he come from, what does he do. Barnabas (Joseph) means Son of Encouragement.
Acts 11:21-23
21The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 22News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
Acts 11:29-30
29The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. 30This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
Acts 15:36
36Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing."
See Barnabas is the Son of Encouragment, when Christians where extablishing the church he went to them to encourage them. What did he encourage them about? To remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Okay that is easy to do. Next he again went to them and helped them out by sending gifts. Great go and help when brothers and sisters in Christ need help. Got it. Lastly again Barnabas went again to see how they were doing. Now this isn't the common 'how are you' but 'how are you spiritually?, is there an area in which you are struggling so I can pray for you?' Then the next one is 'follow-up'. Barnabas went back again and again to people to follow up. Amazing huh?
So simply here is what the Lord has shown me:
Encourage the faithfullness of others to the Lord Jesus Christ
Help out others when they need help the most
Ask 'how are you, how is your walk with God, what has God been doing in your life recently or right now' (When your mind is blank then maybe this is a time to say...'hey, I don't know how my walk is right now can you pray for me about that') God IS ALWAYS working in our lives.
Still stuck on what to ask, try this:
'What are you praying for?' Because that is where we need encouragment. 'Where are you struggling?', 'Who are you witnessing to at work?' Again the same answer this is where we can encourage others.
How often should we encourage and why do we need encouragment?
Simple Hebrews 3:13
13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
Ask yourself: Is today today? Have you encouraged a brother or sister in Christ?
Philemon 1: 4-7 is kind of how this all got started now that I am looking into this journal.
I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. 7Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have REFRESHED the hearts of the saints
When we are encouraged we are refreshed and our love for Christ is that much more renewed. If we are stuggling with sin someones encouragement can help us out. So why not encourage? Even when you don't know what to say, say something.
I end with this, which ties into accountability:
How can we be encouraged in our walk with Christ when no one knows our walk? If you pretend to be fine, how can we know how to encourage?
So who knows your walk?
Now encouragement is not by any means easy for me! Constantly I was told what to do, how it needed to get done, and if it wasn't enough to try harder while I was growing up. Very little did I hear or feel encoureagement in the manner that Jesus calls us to encourage. When I am around other brothers and sisters in Christ I have a hard time 'encouraging' them. So recently I have felt God saying pick up the Bible and find how to be an encourager, so what did I do?...I picked up my Bible and went to the concordenance and looked up the word encourage, encouragement, and Barnabas. Let's begin with who Barnabas is.
Who is he, where does he come from, what does he do. Barnabas (Joseph) means Son of Encouragement.
Acts 11:21-23
21The Lord's hand was with them, and a great number of people believed and turned to the Lord. 22News of this reached the ears of the church at Jerusalem, and they sent Barnabas to Antioch. 23When he arrived and saw the evidence of the grace of God, he was glad and encouraged them all to remain true to the Lord with all their hearts.
Acts 11:29-30
29The disciples, each according to his ability, decided to provide help for the brothers living in Judea. 30This they did, sending their gift to the elders by Barnabas and Saul.
Acts 15:36
36Some time later Paul said to Barnabas, "Let us go back and visit the brothers in all the towns where we preached the word of the Lord and see how they are doing."
See Barnabas is the Son of Encouragment, when Christians where extablishing the church he went to them to encourage them. What did he encourage them about? To remain true to the Lord with all their hearts. Okay that is easy to do. Next he again went to them and helped them out by sending gifts. Great go and help when brothers and sisters in Christ need help. Got it. Lastly again Barnabas went again to see how they were doing. Now this isn't the common 'how are you' but 'how are you spiritually?, is there an area in which you are struggling so I can pray for you?' Then the next one is 'follow-up'. Barnabas went back again and again to people to follow up. Amazing huh?
So simply here is what the Lord has shown me:
Encourage the faithfullness of others to the Lord Jesus Christ
Help out others when they need help the most
Ask 'how are you, how is your walk with God, what has God been doing in your life recently or right now' (When your mind is blank then maybe this is a time to say...'hey, I don't know how my walk is right now can you pray for me about that') God IS ALWAYS working in our lives.
Still stuck on what to ask, try this:
'What are you praying for?' Because that is where we need encouragment. 'Where are you struggling?', 'Who are you witnessing to at work?' Again the same answer this is where we can encourage others.
How often should we encourage and why do we need encouragment?
Simple Hebrews 3:13
13But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.
Ask yourself: Is today today? Have you encouraged a brother or sister in Christ?
Philemon 1: 4-7 is kind of how this all got started now that I am looking into this journal.
I always thank my God as I remember you in my prayers, 5because I hear about your faith in the Lord Jesus and your love for all the saints. 6I pray that you may be active in sharing your faith, so that you will have a full understanding of every good thing we have in Christ. 7Your love has given me great joy and encouragement, because you, brother, have REFRESHED the hearts of the saints
When we are encouraged we are refreshed and our love for Christ is that much more renewed. If we are stuggling with sin someones encouragement can help us out. So why not encourage? Even when you don't know what to say, say something.
I end with this, which ties into accountability:
How can we be encouraged in our walk with Christ when no one knows our walk? If you pretend to be fine, how can we know how to encourage?
So who knows your walk?
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