The Habit of Encouragement

Encouraging one another is not typically the spiritual habit that makes the list of the habits of grace. But yet the bible commands us in several place to encourage one another (1 Thess. 5:11, 4:18; Heb.3:13, 10:25). If fact, in the book of Acts a brother is commended for his faithfulness and service. His name was Barnabas, which means son of encouragement. I am sure he was a blessing to be around. As followers of Christ in a broken world, we need encouragement. You might say, we need to be Barnabas’ to one another. Every day we are inundated with distressing and discouraging situation’s, that threaten our joy, peace and contentment in Christ. This is why we need to cultivate a habit of encouraging one another so that we as Heb. 3 says, “don’t succumb to the deceitfulness of sin.” But here’s the deal, the encouragements the bible says we should give one to another are not the platitudes or compliments that mindlessly roll off our tongues, like “you look nice today” or “great job”. Those encouragements are helpful. But God intends that we would speak intentional gospel saturated truths to one another that would build one another up in the faith and strength us for the journey ahead.