Stray Thoughts: Encouragement

We've all been taught about the importance of being encouraging to each other. And we've all heard Scriptures like this one to prove that it really is that important.

Therefore encourage one another with these words. 1 Thessalonians 4:18

But how are we to actually do this thing called encouragement? Too often, the default notion is that we are to somehow make the other person feel better about life. So, we'll say things like, 'It's not all that bad' or 'This too shall pass' or even something theological sounding like 'Well, God is in control'. The goal of these and other similar phrases is to minimize or even remove the sad or troubling feelings, to somehow help the person to set them aside and thus (hopefully) feel better about life.

I really don't think that that is what the Spirit had in mind when He had Paul write those words I quoted above. I actually think that encouragement is something very different. It's a matter of reminding the needy saint what is real.

There are a couple of steps to this.

The first thing is to acknowledge the evil that the person is facing. If you look at the larger context of what I quoted above, you'll see that what the saints in Thessalonica were struggling with was the death of their friends. Some Christians in that church had died, and those who remained were grief-stricken.

Here's the paragraph that Paul wrote.

But we do not want you to be uninformed, brothers, about those who are asleep, that you may not grieve as others do who have no hope. For since we believe that Jesus died and rose again, even so, through Jesus, God will bring with him those who have fallen asleep. For this we declare to you by a word from the Lord, that we who are alive, who are left until the coming of the Lord, will not precede those who have fallen asleep. For the Lord himself will descend from heaven with a cry of command, with the voice of an archangel, and with the sound of the trumpet of God. And the dead in Christ will rise first. Then we who are alive, who are left, will be caught up together with them in the clouds to meet the Lord in the air, and so we will always be with the Lord. 1 Thessalonians 4:13–17

You'll note that Paul doesn't write, 'Oh, it's no big deal', following that up with some reason to ignore it all. No. Rather, he writes to them about grief, their grief. He doesn't minimize the evil that they were experiencing. (After all, they were dealing with death.) Paul acknowledges what is real.

But then, he goes on to describe more of what is real. Because they are the saints of God, they can have hope. God has promised something. He has promised that they will be reunited with their friends when Jesus returns. Paul points them to Christian hope. And such hope is simply waiting expectantly for God to keep His promise.

Doing something like this, pointing a discouraged saint to an appropriate promise, makes the battle clear. Life for the discouraged saint isn't to be a matter of somehow getting on with things, struggling into tomorrow. No. The battle is all about this question that a saint should ask himself: Do I believe this promise of God? That's the real battle. It's a battle to believe God. And seeing this will help prayers to become more focused. 'Father, grant me the ability to believe You. Grant me the ability to repent of any unbelief.'

You can see how that plays out in what Paul wanted those Thessalonian saints to do to help each other. Point each other to the promises of God and put your hope in them.

So, encouragement is about reminding a saint about reality. Yes, there is evil. We must never minimize it. It is very real. But there is also Jesus and His Gospel promises that deal with the evil that confronts us all. A Christian may have to wait for some promise to be kept, but knowing that Jesus will deal with whatever that saint is facing will encourage him to keep on going even in the midst of evil and the pains it brings.