Devotion 4: A Pat on the Back
Before working at the church, I had a career in the trades. I am in one of the last generations that was trained with a pull-yourself-up-by-your-bootstraps type of attitude. The only encouraging words that I was ever told by my supervisor were that I should “Be better,” or that I needed to “Get out of the way,” because I was “Making it worse.” It did make me want to work harder, but looking back, it was only because I wanted some sort of recognition.
1 Thessalonians 5:9–12 says, “For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing. We ask you, brothers, to respect those who labor among you and are over you in the Lord and admonish you.”
After talking about the return of Jesus and telling them they’ve been saved, not destined for wrath, Paul tells the church of Thessalonica to “encourage one another, and build one another up.” This is something so many of us miss when we allow our whole world to revolve around ourselves. When we are so fixated on our own lives, we tend to forget what we’ve been called to do: not to sit around and wait aimlessly for Jesus to return, but to encourage and build up other people. When the time came for me to start training my own team, I decided to go down the path less traveled by training them with encouraging words and building them up to believe in their ability to work. Did I get some people who worked not as hard? Maybe, but I got a lot more people who were willing to keep working with me.
Encouraging others has become one of my favorite things to do. Simply telling someone, “You’re awesome,” and “God loves you,” can change their whole day. This doesn't mean we say things that we think others want to hear; that would be lying. It means we come alongside them. It means we offer them support, strength, and hope by speaking the truth. All of us need to be affirmed in God's grace. When Paul says to “build one another up,” this is never about putting someone in the center of attention. It’s simply about offering warm words of prayer, grace, and affirmation, and helping to realign their focus on Jesus.
One challenge I would ask anyone reading this is to make a conscious effort this week to encourage the people you come across. It could be your family, friends, work colleagues, or the Meijer greeter. It’s not always easy to execute, so sometimes we must be very intentional. How amazing it is to see people light up when they’re reminded how much God loves them!