True Encouragement

1 Thessalonians 5  (NLT) ¹¹ So encourage each other and build each other up, just as you are already doing.

The essence of missional mentoring is to encourage and build up. As Rick Lewis in his excellent book on mentoring says we need to identify what the Holy Spirit is doing in someone’s life and work with Him. To truly encourage is not an exercise in simply saying some positive words, even well chosen ones, but identifying what God is doing in a believer’s life and bringing this to the person’s attention -both clarifying and spurring on. We all appreciate encouragement and some are natural encouragers like Barnabas in Acts who seemingly encouraged as much by what he did as by what he said.

If you are like me giving encouragement doesn’t come naturally and I constantly have to be intentional about making sure both in words and actions that I choose to encourage and build up. It’s often easier at times to be critical, stay silent or say some honeyed words whereas in reality we need to be discerning and sincere in order to be effective in building others up.

Father, may your Spirit inspire me as I seek to identify and work with your Spirit to build up and encourage.