“TODAY.”

” But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” so that none of you will be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin…but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”-{Heb 3:13, 25}

“Encourage one another as long as it is called, ‘Today’…” If you think about it, every day you know from His Word one thing you can do ‘today’… put courage into others with your words, tone of your words, shaped and formed by His Word and your deeds of kindness and sacrificial love. God called Joshua to be courageous as he faced the future unknown to Him but known to the Lord and his motivation was the encouragement of His Promise, “For the LORD your God is with you wherever you go.”- {Joshua 1:9}.

As long as you have people before or around you…. know TODAY… God’s revealed will for you from His Word is that you encourage them. It does not mean compromise with sin, but even in someone’s sin, you can cover it with love and if it has to be confronted, then do so with gentleness and so as to offer them hope and regain that solid footing.-{ Read Galatians 6:1-2}

To encourage, means to come along side to put courage in someone, to discourage means to take courage from someone through disheartening them. It takes thoughtfulness, consideration…thinking ahead at times how to show and to encourage others.

Often we get bogged down in trying to find the will of God as though it is some “maze” we are walking through or as though God is playing “hide and seek,” making it as difficult and frustrating as He possibly can for us! We often focus on the unknown when He would have us taken up with the known will. “The Lord our God has secrets known to no one. We are not accountable for them, but we and our children are accountable forever for all that he has revealed to us, so that we may obey all the terms of these instructions. -{Deut 29:29 nlt}.

God has His “secret will” that belongs to Him alone and He has His reveled will according to His Word for us to know! So we must be taken up with His reveled will in His Word. God…is not playing “hide and seek,” HE HAS REVEALED His will in His Word, for TODAY and EVERYDAY from here on out… and it includes that we seek to ENCOURAGE others. That they pursue Him, stay the course…. persevere when tempted to quit and throw in the towel. Nehemiah experienced this attack on him when he said “they tried to make me FEARFUL in order to DISCOURAGE… that the Work might STOP!”- {Read Neh 6:9}. Note the order, Fear, discourage, quit! The same evil tactic used today. Be mindful others may be in that temptation to yield to fear, discouragement and quit. God can use you to come alongside and put courage in them to keep going, trusting, giving of themselves for His cause, for His honor and His testimony.

The Scripture shares that God’s revealed will for us is to encourage one another as long as it is called ‘Today.’ The writer of the letter also encouraged them that when they met together that one aspect they should do is to encourage. in light of the coming of the LORD as a motivation, and this to a people who were suffering, unstable in their faith.

“…and let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds, not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”-{Heb 10:24-25}

We all need encouragement and especially to those who are in trials, suffering. We can encourage one another motivated knowing…

THREE REASONS TO MUTUALLY ENCOURAGE;

  1. This is God’s revealed will.
  2. A Preservative from deception. This is huge! “…SO THAT none of you are hardened by the DECEITFULNESS of sin.”
  3. The Return of the LORD Jesus. “…but encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”-{Heb 10:25}

Don’t be a discourager, be His encourager TODAY… someone needs you to be!

My youngest son was about seven years old at the time and we were traveling home having met an older man whom I had told him had been a great encourager to so, so many people in his life but now was feeling the pain of loneliness due to the absence of his departed wife. He shared how he dreaded going to bed at night and sat up as late as he could before going to bed. As we were driving back home the silence was broke when this little boy asked a very insightful question, “Daddy, who encourages the encourager?” Indeed those who encourage others we learn from the verse also need to be encouraged day after day as long as it is called ‘Today!” Who is it that you encourage? How do you encourage?

Many, many years ago I sat in a circle of teenage girls at a sports conference and near the end of the week they were asked to say what they had come to appreciate in one another. There was a lot of person’s twisting their own hair out of nervousness and struggling to give three things that they appreciated so as to encourage the person they were speaking about. It was hard for them to say …to encourage another. Why is this? If we asked some can you give us a list of things you don’t like about someone some of us would have no problems as lovelessness is good at faultfinding.

In Philippians 4;1-3 Paul is writing to try and sort out a row between some believers but in it we see that he commends what is commendable in them . he calls them his beloved, his joy, his crown and says what they specifically mean to him. He then confronts and then commends again because they have labored in the Gospel. We could learn from him couldn’t we. Commend what is commendable. Be specific. And of you have to confront do so and then commend again for what you have seen that is commendable in their lives. I don’t believe I have ever met anyone who has gone to bed at night in a flood of tears because they have been encouraged so much. But I am sure there are scores of people who have cried for the discouragement and unkind words, deeds done to them. We are to be different as His people and one way is to be His encouragers on a daily basis. As we do we reflect Him as Paul wrote, “God who gives …Encouragement.”-{Rom 15:5}.

One way we can receive encouragement in order to pass on encouragement is through His Word which He has graciously given and preserved. Paul writes, For whatever was written in earlier times was written for our instruction, so that through perseverance and the encouragement of the Scriptures we might have hope. “- {Rom 15:4}  When we come to the Scriptures we can pray and ask Him to encourage us as this is one reason they have been given and they might produce “hope” in our hearts. When “hope” goes our morale stoops and despair takes over if yielded to. Hope not of chance like a gambler betting but the hope of certainty, that the encouragement from his Word produces. This is one reason we come to His Word to be encouraged but to be able to encourage others from his Word and see him impart “Hope” to them. You never read the Scriptures just for your own benefit but also to benefit others as Ezra 7;10 teaches. He gave Himself to know the LORD study His Word and teach others and in Nehemiah chapter 8 when the people needed someone to explain the Word to them they called Ezra who had prepared himself in the Word not knowing this time would come that God would use him to influence a generation of people and provide hope to them. It may not be a generation but it can be one, two or more lives whom God has an will  do to encourage His own through His Word by His people, that includes you and hopefully me.

“Daddy who encourages the encourager?” Those who take God and His Word seriously, submitting to it and transmitting it into the lives of others as long as it is called ‘Today.’