SPEAK LIFE – ENCOURAGE ONE ANOTHER
BREAD
28 But commission Joshua, and encourage and strengthen him, for he will lead this people across and will cause them to inherit the land that you will see. Deuteronomy 3:28 (NIV)
1 Then Job replied: 2 “I have heard many things like these; miserable comforters are you all! 3 Will your long-winded speeches never end? What ails you that you keep on arguing? 4 I also could speak like you, if you were in my place; I could make fine speeches against you and shake my head at you. 5 But my mouth would encourage you; comfort from my lips would bring you relief.” Job 16:1-5 (NIV)
17 You hear, O LORD, the desire of the afflicted; you encourage them, and you listen to their cry, 18 defending the fatherless and the oppressed, in order that man, who is of the earth, may terrify no more. Psalm 10:17-18 (NIV)
16 Wash and make yourselves clean. Take your evil deeds out of my sight! Stop doing wrong, 17 learn to do right! Seek justice, encourage the oppressed. Defend the cause of the fatherless, plead the case of the widow. Isaiah 1:16-17 (NIV)
1 Comfort, comfort my people, says your God. 2 Speak tenderly to Jerusalem, and proclaim to her that her hard service has been completed, that her sin has been paid for, that she has received from the LORD’s hand double for all her sins. Isaiah 40:1-2 (NIV)
45 When Moses finished reciting all these words to all Israel, 46 he said to them, “Take to heart all the words I have solemnly declared to you this day, so that you may command your children to obey carefully all the words of this law. 47 They are not just idle words for you–they are your life. By them you will live long in the land you are crossing the Jordan to possess.” Deuteronomy 32:45-47 (NIV)
11 He who loves a pure heart and whose speech is gracious will have the king for his friend. Proverbs 22:11 (NIV)
16 All Scripture is God-breathed and is useful for teaching, rebuking, correcting and training in righteousness, 17 so that the man of God may be thoroughly equipped for every good work. 2 Timothy 3:16-17 (NIV)
7 Tychicus will tell you all the news about me. He is a dear brother, a faithful minister and fellow servant in the Lord. 8 I am sending him to you for the express purpose that you may know about our circumstances and that he may encourage your hearts. Colossians 4:7-8 (NIV)
1 In the presence of God and of Christ Jesus, who will judge the living and the dead, and in view of his appearing and his kingdom, I give you this charge: 2 Preach the Word; be prepared in season and out of season; correct, rebuke and encourage–with great patience and careful instruction. 2 Timothy 4:1-2 (NIV)
1 So when we could stand it no longer, we thought it best to be left by ourselves in Athens.
2 We sent Timothy, who is our brother and God’s fellow worker in spreading the gospel of Christ, to strengthen and encourage you in your faith, 3 so that no one would be unsettled by these trials. You know quite well that we were destined for them. 1 Thessalonians 3:1-3 (NIV)
16 For the Lord himself will come down from heaven, with a loud command, with the voice of the archangel and with the trumpet call of God, and the dead in Christ will rise first. 17 After that, we who are still alive and are left will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air. And so we will be with the Lord forever. 18 Therefore encourage each other with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:16-18 (NIV)
13 But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness. Hebrews 3:13 (NIV)
BUTTER
“God employs His people to encourage one another. We should delight that God usually works for human beings with other human beings. It forms a bond of friendship, and being mutually dependent on one another, we are fused more completely into one family. Work to help others, and especially strive to encourage them. Talk cheerily to the young and anxious inquirer, lovingly try to remove obstacles out of his way. When you find a spark of grace in the heart, kneel down and blow it into a flame. Leave the young believer to discover the roughness of the road by degrees, but tell him of the strength which dwells in God, of the sureness of the promise, and of the charms of communion with Christ. Aim to comfort the sorrowful, and to animate the hopeless. Speak a word in season to him who is weary, and encourage those who are fearful to go on their way with gladness. God encourages you by His promises; Christ encourages you as He points to the heaven He has won for you, and the Spirit encourages you as He works in you to will and to do of His own will and pleasure. Imitate divine wisdom, and encourage others according to the Word.” Charles H. Spurgeon
“On Him then reckon, to Him look, on Him depend: and be assured that if you walk with Him, look to Him and expect help from Him, He will never fail you. An older brother, who has known the Lord for forty-four years, who writes this, says for your encouragement that He has never failed him. In the greatest difficulties, in the heaviest trials, in the deepest poverty and necessities, He has never failed me; but because I was enabled by His grace to trust in Him, He has always appeared for my help. I delight in speaking well of His Name.” George Mueller
“If you have gone a little way ahead of me, call back – ‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track; And if, perchance, Faith’s light is dim, because the oil is low, Your call will guide my lagging course as wearily I go. Call back, and tell me that he went with you into the storm; Call back, and say He kept you when the forest’s roots were torn; That, when the heavens thunder and the earthquake shook the hill, He bore you up and held you where the very air was still. Oh, friend, call back, and tell me for I cannot see your face, They say it glows with triumph, and your feet bound in the race; But there are mists between us and my spirit eyes are dim, And I cannot see the glory, though I long for word of Him. But if you’ll say He heard you when your prayer was but a cry, And if you’ll say He saw you through the night’s sin-darkened sky If you have gone a little way ahead, of friend, call back – ‘Twill cheer my heart and help my feet along the stony track.” Mrs. Charles Cowman
“God wants us to reconnect with the powerful and timeless things He has done in the past, enabling us to build on them rather than always starting over. He not only desires that we be encouraged by remembering His past faithfulness, but also to realize that the promises and anointings released during those seasons are still available today.” Dutch Sheets
“Jesus is the Word made flesh and in Him is perfect peace – a state of untroubled, undisturbed well-being. Therefore, as His followers we are to encourage one another, in the midst of life’s chaos and storms, with the living and powerful Word of God. As our Lord did, He spoke the Word and calmed the sea. Just as it was true then, it is still true today – His Word calms and He can speak it even through a donkey. His Word is alive and active and sharper than any two-edged sword. It is able to divide soul and spirit, joint and marrow. It judges the thoughts and attitudes of the heart. It is not to be merely idle words for us as Moses told the Israelites, it is to be our life. God’s Word is a balm for every needy soul – and truly, what soul isn’t needy?” BHY
“Encouragement costs you nothing to give, but it is priceless to receive.” Anonymous
“One of the highest of human duties is the duty of encouragement…It is easy to laugh at men’s ideals; it is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet. Blessed is the man who speaks such a word.” William Barclay
“Encouragement is oxygen to the soul”. John Maxwell
“More people fail for lack of encouragement than for any other reason.” Anonymous
“Because here’s the thing—I don’t need someone to stand at a podium and tell me how to be a good mother in five alliterated points. I don’t need a complimentary monogrammed water bottle reminding me that I’m valuable. I don’t need a rousing speech that makes me want to do more and be better, as though grace has no place in sanctification. I don’t need a soul-coddling self-esteem boost, as though my sin is never an issue. I need the Gospel. I need someone to open the Bible in front of me and tell me what the text meant when it was written. I need to listen to men and women explain the depths of my sin and the greatness of my God who provided His Own Son as payment for my sin. I need to know that this Jesus upon whom I’ve staked my life and my eternity is going to be my hope and my perseverance when trials come. I need to know that all that has been lost in this life will be restored in heaven. I need to know that when suffering settles all over us and it looks like evil is winning, that God is still on His throne and that all wrongs will be set right. I need truth that is hard to swallow but deeply nourishing. I need direction in graciously embracing our unwelcome strangeness in a rapidly self-destructing culture. I need to be encouraged that plodding along in anonymity can be precious in God’s sight. I need to hear that the Bible is about God. I need to be gently rebuked because I have refused to see the Church as Christ sees her. I need to be reassured that the gospel that reconciles me to God can also reconcile me to others. I need to be reminded that God can use the Church to heal church hurt and that emotional vulnerability is a self-sacrificing thing. The gospel isn’t just for salvation. It’s for sanctification, too. Once we move away from the centrality of Scripture, we move away from knowing God as He has revealed Himself to us, and then we’ve lost everything that matters.” Glenna Marshall
HEART SAVOR
• God’s Word encourages both ourselves and others.
• Encouragement of others costs us nothing yet is priceless – we all need it.
• It is far easier to throw cold water on other’s ideas or simply give up on a person rather than to offer a word of encouragement or affirmation. To bend down and fan into flame the spark within them. Every soul is worthy – Jesus demonstrated this by dying for us all. Who has He placed in your sphere to be a blessing of encouragement?
Beth Yoe's Sharing Bread 