Six encouraging principles

In the book of 1 Timothy, it’s about a young pastor named Timothy. Timothy was younger than most and at this point in Timothy’s life he needed a lot of encouragement because of his youth. Much like Timothy, we all go through things where we need encouraged. Whether it’s a bad week at work, a bad game, or maybe you’re just looked down upon. Regardless of the situation, I believe that we all needed encouraged. 

I mean..heck I started this blog as an encouragement blog three years ago.

Anyways, Timothy needed some encouragement. Most likely, do so many people around you. Each day we have many opportunities to support and inspire family members, fellow workers, and even totally strangers. 

People need help and affirmation all along the way.

Paul modeled six important principles to help us encourage others. 

1. Begin with encouragement. People who know we will encourage them will be happy to work with us.

2. Expect others only what you expect of yourself. People will resist being held to unfair standards.

3. Develop expectations of others with consideration for their skills, maturity, and experience. People will reject or fail to meet expectations that do not fit them. Be patient with distracted or slow learners.

4. Monitor your expectations of others. Changing circumstances sometimes require revised or reduced expectations.

5. Clarify your expectations with others. People are not likely to hit their target that no one has identified.

6. End with encouragement. People love to be thanked for a job well done.

Try implementing these principles into your life...it might be hard to start doing all six at once, so maybe even add one a day. Imagine how much of an encouragement you’ll to be people around you when you start to live and encourage by these principles. 

God is King

 God is still King of the world. All nations of the earth will eventually recognize his lordship. 

“Clap your hands all you nations; shout to God with cries of job. For the Lord Most High is awesome, the great King over all the earth.” (Psalm 47:1-2)

God is always there to help

God is always there to help, providing refuge , security and peace. God’s power is complete and his ultimate victory is certain. He will not fail to rescue those who love him.

“God is our refuge and strength, an ever-present help in trouble. Therefore we will not fear, though the earth will give way and the mountains will fall into the heart of the sea, though its waters roar and foam and the mountains quake with their surging. There is a river whose streams make glad the city of God, the holy place where the Most High dwells, God is with her, she will not fall; God will help her at break of day. Nations are in uproar, kingdoms fall; he lifts his voice, the earth melts. The Lord Almighty is with us; God is our fortress.” (Psalm 46:1-7)

That’s all I got. 

the purpose of the law

One of the things that always confused me when I spent time in the word of God was anything about the “law.”

“We know that the law is good if one uses it properly. We also know that the law is made not for the righteous but for the lawbreakers and rebels, the ungodly and sinful, the unholy and irreligious, for those who kill their fathers or mothers, for murderers, for the sexually immoral, for those who practicing homosexuality, for slave traders and liars and perjurers  - and for whatever else is contrary to the sound doctrine that conforms to the gospel concerning the glory of the blessed God, which he entrusted to me.” (1 Timothy 1:8-11)

The law is good if one uses it properly...it’s also not for the righteous but for the sinners. 

The law was not meant to give believers a list of commands for every occasion, but to show unbelievers their sin and bring them to God. 

Think about that and really settle in, the law is meant to bring sinners to God. Being a sinner that I am, I appreciate this because I want to be brought to God. I know that I mess up. I say things and I think things that I shouldn’t think about...but the law isn’t there to make me feel bad about myself. It’s to help show me the true way that I should be living my life. 

Next time you sin...and you start to feel really bad about...or maybe it’s that what you’re doing you don’t even know is wrong...whatever it is...remember that as Christians, we are sinners, and yes, there are ways that we should live our lives to honor Christ and to follow the sound doctrine, but when we don’t do those things, and realize we are wrong, we are brought to Christ every time. 

It goes full-circle, and that my friends is why God is GOOD. The purpose of the law is to bring us to Christ! 

Don’t be a busybody

There is a difference between being productive and being a busybody and I believe it’s something we often over look. The reason I am writing this post tonight is because my hope and prayer is that you are able to distinguish which you are right now and what changes your might have to make.

“We hear that some among you are idle and disruptive. They are not busy; they are busybodies. Such people we command and urge in the Lord Jesus Christ to settle down and earn the food they eat.”            (2 Thessalonians 3:11-12) 

A “busybody” is a gossip. An idle person who doesn’t work, ends up filling his or her time with less than helpful activities, like gossip. Rumors and hearsay are tantalizing, exciting to hear, and make us feel like insiders. But they tear people down. If you often find your nose in other people’s business, you may be underemployed. Look for a task to do for Christ or for you family and get to work. 

Do you find yourself trying to get in other people’s business? Do you have time on your hands to be more concerned about others than your own personal growth? I believe that we sadly become busybodies when we don’t fill our time with productive things. 

I mean seriously think about where your mind goes when you aren’t specifically focusing on a task at hand...it immediately goes to other people. Our brains try to find something to occupy our thoughts when we aren’t focused on a specific task. As soon as we let our mind wonder, we start getting in other people’s business. 

My hope...and what I want out of this post isn’t to make you feel like you’re a busybody, but it’s to challenge you to have a productive state of mind. 

Christ’s life & love

Something that we should never ever take for granted is Christ’s life and love. Thankfully we live in a country where we are free to practice the religions that we believe in. 

I know sometimes, we might get on social media and it seems like our feeds are flooded with bible verses, worships songs, and quotes from Christian authors, but we need to embrace that and take advantage of the freedoms that we have. 

I have been to China twice, and that is not a country where you can practice your Christian faith. When I went over there, we had to be incredibly carful about what we say, our Bible’s we brought with us, and the devotionals we had in our backpacks. If the Chinese government would’ve discovered that we were there for a mission trip, we would’ve been sent home immediately. 

I have a really special place in my heart for China...and to not be able to share with the people over there that I love so much about what I believe in was extremely hard.

One of the biggest lessons that I have learned with my experience in traveling to China was to never take my faith for granted.

So then, brothers and sisters, stand firm and hold fast to the teachings we passed on to you, whether by word of mouth or by letter. (2 Thessalonians 2:15)

Paul urges us to stand firm and hold on to the truth we have been taught. We will face persecution, false teachings, worldliness, and apathy. We need to hold on to the truth of Christ’s teaching because out lives depend on it. Never forget the reality of Christ’s life and love.  

So in situations, like me being in China, or anything you will face, you must always remember what we have been taught..because our lives depend on it. 

The ultimate thirst quencher

I am not entirely sure what are on Gatorade commercials right now, but I remember when I was younger, Gatorade was known as the ultimate thirst quencher.

What comes to mind when you think of your thirst being quenched? For me, it’s a nice glass of water when I wake up in the morning. There aren’t many things that are more enjoyable then when I sip down some water when I first wake up. 

Let’s go deeper, though, because I know we can always go deeper. How do you feel when your thirst is quenched? For me, I know my body and my mind need it. When I am not hydrated, my life is a mess..

When you think about what really quenches your thirst does Christ come to mind? Dose your heart, mind, and soul long for the fulfillment that comes from Christ? It should. Because I will tell you this, I am not perfect, but I can recognize when my soul needs some time in the word or in prayer, and when I act on that feeling, I cannot put into words how fulfilled I feel. 

Even recently, I have struggled with being disciplined about my relationship with Christ. I have put other things first, and I have noticed a difference about how I feel as a direct result of it. This past week, I knew that I needed to get my head back on my shoulders and make sure my relationship with Christ was at the very top of my priority list. You know what? I feel fulfilled. I feel as if every day that I spend time with Christ, my day is made complete and every thirst, longing, and hunger I have is fulfilled. 

“As the deer pants for streams of water, so my soul pants for you, my God. My soul thirsts for God, the living God. When can I go and meet with God? My tears have been my food day and night.” (Psalms 42:1-3)

As the life of a deer depends on water, so our lives depend upon God. Those who seek him and long to understand him find never-ending life. Feeling separated from God, this psalmist wouldn’t rest until his very life depended on it. Do you thirst for God?

The perfect recipe

I feel like as of late, well all of 2020, people have been trying to figure out what works best. How do we prevent COVID-19? How do we make it known that black lives matter? How do we figure out who is the best presidential candidate?

Those are only some of the issues and concerns that we have all had to deal with this year. 

To be completely honest, I don’t any of these things have even been close to being resolved. It’s trial and error over and over again. 

I came across some scripture in 1 Thessalonians this afternoon that really got me thinking to myself...this is the perfect recipe.

“Rejoice always.” (1 Thessalonians 5:16)

“Pray continually.” (1 Thessalonians 5:17)

“Give thanks in all circumstances.” (1 Thessalonians 5:18)

These short and very brief statements make up three bible verses because they’re that significant. 

Let me walk you through this...imagine waking up and throughout the entire day, you rejoice about everything. You rejoice about the fact that you woke up in the morning. (Regardless of the time) You rejoice driving to work. You rejoice all the good and all the bad things that happen. You rejoice when someone makes you happy and you rejoice when someone cuts you off on your drive home. You rejoice at the responsibilities that you have when you make it home from work, etc. Seriously though, think about how much happier we would be if we rejoice more often. The more we rejoice, the more that others know that there is a difference about us, and when people notice a positive difference, that often inspires action. 

Now picture this, imagine praying continually. No I don’t mean praying on your knees all day long..that would be impossible. But what is possible though is to have a prayerful attitude at all times. This attitude is built upon acknowledging and dependence on God, realizing his presence within us and determining to obey him fully. Then we will find it natural to pray frequent, spontaneous, short prayers. A prayerful attitude is not a substitute for regular times of prayer but should be an outgrowth of those times. Having a prayerful attitude will change your life. 

Lastly, we must thank God in all circumstances. Notice, Paul didn’t write that we should thank God for everything that happens to us, but in everything. Evil does not come from God, so we should not thank him for it. But when evil strikes, we can still be thankful for God’s presence and for the good that he will accomplish through the distress. 

When you think about this perfect recipe, is it something you want to make sure that you implement into your daily life? Or are you going to try and continually figure things out on your own? 

My encouragement to you is to implement it. Your life will seriously chance when you begin to rejoice always, pray continually, and give thanks in all circumstances. 

Christian Responsibility

As a Christian, I feel like sometimes the main responsibility is to just love other Christians. I feel like if I do that I am doing a good job. But boy was I dead wrong. As Christians we have a tremendous responsibility. 

The greatest responsibility we have is how we live our lives. 

There are various people that you may be connected with who have an influence on your responsibility. For me, I know I have an amazing family, fiancé, friends, and inspirational leaders in my workplace. One of the people I think who have the biggest influence was my first basketball coach in college. 

When I was a freshmen, I thought that I was a big shot because I was on the basketball team and we were the best team on campus. I was under the impression that me and my teammates were the big dogs on campus because of those things. I will never forget what Coach Mike Lightfoot told us during my first ever college practice. 

The first words out of his mouth was that relationships matter. He talked about how we need to say hi to people when we are in the cafeteria, how we should make friends who aren't on the basketball team, and how we should say hi to people when we were out in about around campus. And his lesson for us wasn't just to make a quick friend, his intention was to help us form long lasting relationships and to understand that relationships are everything. 

I didn't quite understand this until we leaned that the more relationships we built with other students, the more students would come to our games. 

What I quickly learned was that the people I just said hi to, didn't end up coming to the games. The people that came to games were the people that I was intentional with. The people who would see me in class, the people who saw me work hard, the people who knew a lot about me, etc. The people who came to the games were the people that saw that responsibility that I was living my life with. 

I am not saying that I was perfect, but this is the same way with our faith. We are going to have the biggest influence on others based off of our lifestyles, not just loving other people. 

Oftentimes it might be easy to love others, but what about outside of that? What are you doing with your life? What does your life look like at work? How do you treat others on a deeper and intentional level? 

I hope you are understanding what I am trying to encourage you with this afternoon...We as Christians have a great responsibility. 

"and to make it your ambition to lead a quiet life: You should mind your own business and work with your hands, just as we told you, so that your daily life may win the respect of outsiders and so that you will not be dependent on anybody." (1 Thessalonians 4:11-12)

Now isn't the time for flattery

It's disgusting to hear a person butter up someone and it's not pleasant whenever you overhear flattery. 

Now is not the time for that. With everything going on in our country and across the world it's time to be true to who you are and what you stand for. 

"You know we never used flattery, nor did we put on a mask to cover up greed - God is our witness."

(1 Thessalonians  2:5)

Flattery is phony and it's a false cover-up for a person's real intentions. Christians should not be flatterers. Those who proclaim God's truth have a special responsibility to be honest.

Are you honest and straightforward in your words and actions? Or do you tell people what they want to hear in order to get what you want to get ahead? 

Right now...more than ever it's easy to take sides. Mask? No mask? Etc. Etc.

If you are someone who has gotten into the trap of just telling people what they want to hear.. I would encourage you to change the trajectory you are on immediately. The people who are the most respected, admired, and influential are those who are honest and straightforward with their actions and words.

More than ever...we need to stand up for what we believe in and honor the one true King...Christ Jesus.