Encourage Your Friends

This is totally something that I am working on in my life right now.  I am an encourager and love to encourage my friends in what God is doing in their life.  I love to meet people and encourage them to follow hard after the truth of God.  I love to see people serving in our church and thank them for all their hard work.

Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching. Hebrews 10:25 (NIV)

The opposite side of being an encourager is being a discourager and I can be great at that also.  When I get close to people to love to razz on them.  I have a bad habit of knowing what bothers people and being able to bring that up in awkward ways.  There can be some fun points in this of bonding but there is also an aspect that really brings people down and this is something that I need to constantly be aware of.

See so many times we forget how powerful our words can be.  We forget that in our words there is the power of life and death.  We forget that there are people in our circle of influence who need an encouraging word in their lives and we have the power to offer that to them in the time of need.  If you were to read through the New Testament (mainly Acts and the Epistles) you would see the word "encouragement" come up 40+ times.  There is something important in our words so I want to begin to more aware of as we seek to encourage those around us:

When 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 11:23 (NIV)

Lets talk about three areas that we can help to encourage each other

BUY A COFFEE
This could be one of the best ways to encourage someone this week.  Maybe you already have a meeting planned where you could just slip the old debt card over and take care of the coffee to encourage your friend.


WRITE A NICE NOTE
It is amazing at how much a nice note can make someone's day.  My wife LOVES it when I write her little notes and leave them around for her to find.  Who can you write an encouraging letter to today to let them know how important they are in your life?

SPEND SOME TIME
Time is the most valuable resource that any of us have in this life.  Who do you need to spend a little extra time with this week?  Time spent can help to refresh a relationship, it can be used to strengthen a bond, it can be used to clarify some things so that you can leave the other person more encouraged!