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Deutsche Version | Wiki Start | Topics Collection ix
Encouragement ...
Thursday, Jan 12, 2017. What is it that is encouraging you? What is giving you perspective and joy and fresh motivation? When I look into my job environment, I realize that people are encouraging me. When collaborations work nicely, when people are motivated and have fun with what they do, it is encouraging.
What is encouraging you? …
It is encouraging when we can build something, when you can put work into some area and you know that your efforts will pay. It is encouraging to work in a nicely set environment - when you can contribute to shaping it. Beauty is encouraging. There are so many things.
When we look into the New Testament, into the letter of Romans for example, we find many words of encouragement. In Romans 1, the apostle Paul writes to his fellow Christians in the church in Rome:
8 First, I thank my God through Jesus Christ for all of you, because your faith is proclaimed in all the world. 9 For God is my witness, whom I serve with my spirit in the gospel of his Son, that without ceasing I mention you 10 always in my prayers, asking that somehow by God’s will I may now at last succeed in coming to you. 11 For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you— 12 that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine. (from Romans 1)
Gifts of the Spirit - and Love! …
Paul is thankful for the fellow Christians in Rome. Thankfulness is part of encouragement. He is always praying for these Christians. Here, the encouragement which is formulated in these lines is linked to the eternal God. Because we can trust God, we know that the prayers of Paul are very valuable. When he prays all the time, then God will act, and people will experience blessing. There is this spiritual dimension - and Paul is mentioning it by referring to the gifts of the spirit.
There is a deeper layer in this whole letter. It is the love which Paul has for the church in Rome. There is the love which he has for the Christians living there in what we today call Italy. Love is always encouraging. Love is never destructive, it is always constructive. True love will always give freedom and support.
When we take God serious, when we pray to him for others, when we love our fellow Christians and our fellow humans around us, then we will experience encouragement ourselves. The holy spirit is the true source of all encouragement, and when he is active in our life, joy comes, perspective comes, motivation comes! (Roland Potthast) ... more texts