Friday 9 Aug 2013

Friday Reading: Romans 12:3-8

Key Verse: Romans 12:8
8  Or he that exhorteth, on exhortation: he that giveth, let him do it with simplicity; he that ruleth, with diligence; he that sheweth mercy, with cheerfulness.

Devotion:
Few may be given the gift of prophecy but ever one of us can encourage others! That being said, some people just don’t seem like they want to be encouraged… The disciples were given very special gifts for a very special role in bringing the gospel to as many people as they could in the years that followed Christ’s death, burial and resurrection; and they used their gifts to great effect.

You see, each of us is given gifts that we need to use. God has given us those gifts for a reason and that is that we can give glory to Him. At this stage you may well be saying something like “But I don’t have any gifts” which is where I say that you do because God has given us all the gift of exhortation. Just because someone is great at doing a specific task for the church or good at doing many things for God does not mean that there are people encouraging them along the way; but we can step forward and give them encouragement.

Working for God is certainly not always easy work for many reasons; Satan is going to be trying to trip us up every step of the way be it through direct intervention or even through the people around us. He will try to discourage us by making things go wrong; take what he did to Job as an example. But as long as there is one person who will take a step forward and say something encouraging, we will have hope. That encouragement has to be a multi way thing in that you cannot expect everyone to encourage you without you encouraging others as well. If we see something happening which we think is good then we should be saying something instead of just accepting it as good.

But just saying lots of good things to others will not always cut it. By over-stating things we may wear people down instead of encouraging them. A few words chosen carefully and with compassion will go much further and a raft of words! Those people in charge should choose their words carefully too – just because they are in charge does not give them the right to put down others! And when people are willing to help out, that help should be accepted gratefully and encouragement given to build up the helpers rather than chase them away. Exhorting others is a gift we can all do, but we need to think before we speak otherwise we may destroy instead of encouraging others!

Points to Ponder:
Do you try to encourage others?

Do you have a habit of putting your foot in it?