The Encourager
O God, you are my God, earnestly I seek you; my soul thirsts for you, my body longs for you, in a dry and weary land where there is no water (Psalm 63:1).
Life is hard.
But I didn’t need to convince you of that, did I?
As wise King Solomon points out: “Every heart knows its own bitterness.” And I’m guessing, you’ve had more than your fair share.
How did the king know we’re all hurting?
Well.
As the “wisest man in the world” (1 Kings 3:12), Solomon concluded that sinners who live in a fallen world are not going to get through life emotionally unscathed.
Sooner or later heartache comes to us all.
Jesus pulled no punches.
Along with the good news that He’d give us His peace, and that He’s overcome the world on our behalf, He also gave us a sobering heads up at that famous last meal:
“In the world you will have tribulation.” (Notice it’s not, “you might have troubles…”)
Yeah, not exactly our favorite promise in the Bible, but a promise nonetheless!
The word Jesus uses for tribulation means to be squeezed, like a boa constrictor and its prey.
And who isn’t feeling the pressure these days?
How about recent inflation–Yikes!
I stopped to pick up a few things at Trader Joe’s the other day.
Literally, a few things. And when the clerk totaled it up, I said to him in surprise: “Oh, no, that can’t be right–I only got X, Y and Z.”
But… he was right.
We’re all used to being price gouged at the movie theatre paying $50 for a coke and our beloved Milk Duds, or paying $25 for that soggy sandwich at SFO, but when you can’t buy milk, eggs, and bread at your local market without feeling you’ve been robbed at gunpoint–it’s just a bummer.
I’m joking around, but stressors like these tend to pile up and make for “a dry and barren land where there is no water.”
Add to hard economic times:
Family fall outs.
Conflicts at work.
Dealing with a woke world.
Struggling with our own sinful nature.
Persecution for our faith.
Marital stress and strains.
Financial problems.
Loss of a loved one.
A sadness that doesn’t want to ever go away.
These kinds of things can make us parched of soul.
I was talking to the owner of an antique shop. There was happy French café music playing in the background.
The subject of growing older came up. We laughed about how quickly time passes.
I asked her if she was a grandma yet.
She paused.
Tears welled up in her tired-looking eyes, and she said:
“My only child, my darling daughter, was killed in a car accident when she was 18.”
You would never know she carries this kind of sorrow.
Nor could she know my own heartache that I lug around with me, as I nonchalantly poke around her shop looking for that perfect gift. (Which I found by the way.)
How profoundly beneficial a kind word or a loving gesture is for those who carry burdens.
How wonderful to come alongside a weary traveler with a cup of refreshing water, and point them to the Living Water who promises to quench the longings of every living thing.
And isn’t that why God commands us:
“Encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing” (1 Thessalonians 5:11).
Like Barnabas.
No one was better at doing that than he was.
His parents named him Joseph, but anyone who knew the guy called him Barney!
Why?
They nicknamed him “Mr. Encouragement” because everywhere he went, living waters flowed.
He stuck up for Paul when everyone distrusted the former persecutor of Christians.
He sold some property and blessed the church financially.
He went to bat for his nephew even though John Mark had recently done a humiliating bellyflop.
The list goes on.
One writer called Barnabas the most godly man in the Bible.
Why?
Because Jesus called the Holy Spirit, “The Encourager,” and it’s the same word used to describe Barnabas!
I’m sure all of us would like to be more like him, but most find the selflessness required to be a good encourager, a deal breaker.
WE want to be encouraged, but we don’t necessarily want to encourage others.
But that’s not how it works, right?
Proverbs tells us it’s “those who refresh others, they themselves shall be refreshed” (11:25).
Maybe that’s why King David “encouraged himself in the Lord.” Did he have to encourage himself because nobody around him was there to do that for him?
If we were asked, How many people did you encourage today, or yesterday, I think most of us would say:
I’m not sure if I encouraged anyone at all.
That’s why, with God’s help, we must move this gracious virtue to a higher priority on our list of daily Christian disciplines.
Catholics like to give something up to celebrate Lent, as they commemorate the 40 day countdown to Resurrection Sunday.
I’ve got an idea for us evangelicals.
How about instead of giving something up, we ramp something up?
How about 40 straight days of encouraging one another?
What if every day we made a massive, prayerful effort to do random acts of encouraging?
Imagine all the…
Burdens that would be lifted.
And how our own hearts would be refreshed.
And how our God, the Encourager, would be well pleased!
“And if you give even a cup of cold water to one of the least of My followers, you will surely be rewarded” (Matthew 10:42).
