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BE
AN ENCOURAGER! “Kind words heal and help; cutting words wound and maim” (Proverbs
15:4). What
do other people see in us that is good and beneficial?
If we had to “score points” to be successful in life, how
would our score chart fare? Fortunately,
we don’t have to live this way because the Lord our God has made a
better way for us to succeed. And
a great part of that plan includes you and I being an encourager,
looking for the good in other people, being a friend instead of a
critic, and, helping others wherever possible. Have
you noticed how other people respond favourably when we praise them? Have
you noticed how other people respond negatively when we criticise them? So,
which method brings the best results? When
we are feeling a little ‘wilted’ or rejected, one of the best
actions we can do is reach out to someone else in need, and pour
into them exactly what we would want others to pour into us.
It is a well-known fact that so often when we reach out to others
in need, we become so absorbed in helping them that our own feelings and
problems fade into the background.
Now that sounds like a good recipe to cheer anyone up! If
we want others to befriend us, then we have to become involved in the
process also, by reaching out to others ourselves.
We can ward off the wedge of discouragement in our own lives by
extending a hand of encouragement to someone else.
Look around you and see who you can reach out to.
Who can you encourage with kind words?
Whose “load” can you lighten by extending a helping hand?
So often, all it takes is just one person extending a helping
hand. The
Good Samaritan (Luke 10:30-37) has his good deed recorded for all time
and eternity simply because he reached out to a dying man who’d been
set upon by some thugs as he walked the busy road from Jerusalem to
Jericho. Even more to his
credit is the truth that, despite the fact that the dying man was a Jew
(and the Jews looked down their noses at the Samaritans as if they were
dirt), yet the compassion in this Good Samaritan saw only the great need
that this beaten up victim was in.
Yes, it took only one man to turn a hopeless situation into
restoration of health and new life.
I imagine that this particular Jew had a whole new attitude to
the Samaritans after this transforming event. Instead
of allowing ourselves to become weighed down with problems, sadness,
loneliness or rejection, let us too be an encourager to those
around us and reap the wonderful rewards of friendship from being such a
person. In a society that
is very self-centred, the Christian community has a very good reputation
for reaching out to people in need.
Of course we have a wonderful role model to follow – the Lord
Jesus Himself. Jesus saw
the needs and had compassion; it was Jesus who told the story of the
Good Samaritan. We must
never let the emotion of compassion be lacking in our lives, as
compassion carries the approval of the Master Himself, and what greater
reward do we need than His “tick of approval!” ~ Joan Emery
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