Food for Thought1 Thessalonians 5:11 Encourage Others
Food for Thought
An all-creatures.org Guide to Kingdom Living

By Marni Montanez

1 Thessalonians 5:11 Complete Jewish Bible

11. Therefore, encourage each other, and build each other up

Encouraging one another should be natural for us as Christians; it is one of our basic emotional needs.  All of us need encouragement at some time in our life.  In fact, because of the onslaught of responsibilities, stress and bad reports we must overcome in this world, we need the strength of encouragement most of the time. God gave us the ability to encourage others with words; words that are life giving. Critical words deplete and oppress us. There is power in our words. With them we can raise someone up or tear them down.   

This is our warning, Matthew 12:36 ESV…...I tell you, on the Day of Judgment people will give account for every careless word they speak.  If we are being Christ-like we must remember there is no place in God’s word depicting Jesus as putting someone down just for laughs.  

How many times have we heard these words?   Romans 12:2 ESV 

Do not be conformed to this world, but be transformed by the renewal of your mind, that by testing you may discern what is the will of God, what is good and acceptable and perfect.

The world is bathed in sin with the attitude of self-preservation.  It seems more acceptable to be offensive than to be tender and kind, speaking words of encouragement.   When we say things that are demeaning even in humor we are wounding their heart. 

Once a pastor said, “the heart doesn’t know how to joke,” and I found it to be a very true statement.   Too many of us are easily pulled into the arena of teasing others about real flaws, but in doing so we are agreeing with the enemy and poisoning the situation with toxic talk. 

We need to be committed to building up and encouraging one another.  The enemy exists to persecute us as the world with all its demands keeps us under pressure. Many of us have a tendency to self-criticize, which is defeating and gives the enemy an inroad to discourage us to the point of despair.  We need to value others as well as ourselves and walk united with the forethought of always speaking words of encouragement at all times.   We have control over our own mouth and what we say.  We can use our mouth to speak words that demean and discourage or we can restore a broken church with our words and be a bright light of life and love to the world.   

Challenge:   Be aware of your words to others.  It’s not just what you say, but also what you don’t say.  Speak words of encouragement and build others up with your words.  Watch them flourish.    Choose your words carefully and change lives. 

God bless, 

Marni

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lamb-rightThe purpose of this series is to encourage people to live as loving, compassionate, and peacemaking children of God: Jesus tells us to pray, "Thy kingdom come, thy will be done, on earth as it is in heaven." (Matthew 6:10) God tells us through Micah (6:8), "He has told you, O man, what is good; And what does the Lord require of you But to do justice, to love kindness, And to walk humbly with your God." And we know from Revelation 21:4 that there will be no more mourning, or crying, or pain, or death. Thus, Christian living requires us to set the standards of these conditions here on earth for our fellow human beings, and for the other animals, as a witness to the rest of the world. To do otherwise is not Christian.