ARE WE AN ENCOURAGER

“They helped every one his neighbour; and every one said to his brother, Be of good courage.  So the carpenter encouraged the goldsmith, and he that smootheth with the hammer him that smote the anvil, saying, It is ready for the sodering: and he fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.”

Isaiah 41:6, 7 KJV

All of us need help and encouragement at times.  The person who says he or she doesn’t need encouragement is not being honest.  Even Jesus needed to be encouraged and if Jesus, the Saviour of the world, needed encouragement how much more you and I need to be encouraged.

Are we an encourager to one another?  Are we encouraging our pastors?  Our pastors not only need our prayers, they also need to be encouraged.  Pastors are human just like we are.  They cry like we do and sometimes they feel like giving up and leaving their ministry because no one encourages them.

I received an email ten years ago from a pastor who wrote “My wife and I were very excited when we came to this church.  However, now we are brokenhearted and I am thinking of leaving the church and stop being a pastor because nobody has said anything nice to us.  All they have done is criticize us”.

I know it hurt God because the pastor and his wife were criticized instead of encouraged.  “Obey them that have the rule over you, and submit yourselves: for they watch for your souls, as they that must give account, that they may do it with joy, and not with grief: for that is unprofitable for you” (Hebrews 13:17).

Heavenly Father, thank You for our pastors.  May they always feel Your unconditional love.  In Jesus’ Name, I pray.  Amen.

Joanne Lowe

May 30, 2015