Encouraging Encouragement

Encouragement is like a spiritual hammer.  In the right hands it can be useful for building up and for supporting spiritual growth.  But in the wrong hands encouragement can be destructive in its ability to prop up and reinforce bad behavior.  Moreover, encouragement can seem trite and critical if not delivered with sincerity and specificity.  Done flippantly or without self-control, encouragement can affirm bad habits and even have the opposite of its intended effects.

For starters, encouragement should always be encouraging.  This sounds obvious but it is important to note.  When we encourage, our delivery should be gentle and sincere.  In a real sense, encouragement that is not met with kindness will not be encouraging.  How we encourage is often just as important as why.  Encouragement needs to be delivered with grace.  If not, it can be destructive.

The purpose of encouragement is to build up.  Therefore, if our "encouragements" are not prompting growth then we are not encouraging.  Encouragement is not the same as complimenting.  Instead, encouragement acts as affirmation that we are moving in the same direction while inspiring us to continue pushing forward towards a goal.

However, bad encouragement can happen.  When we encourage flippantly or glibly, we can in fact affirm bad behavior and propel people to amplify mistakes.  Like laughing at the obnoxious class-clown, it's only going to encourage him/her to continue to act out in order to elicit a reaction.  It can be seen that encouragement has such a power and should be wielded responsibly, guided by the Lord.

Paul, in many of his epistles, begins his introductions offering encouragements.  In Colossians, he writes that the purpose of his writing was to encourage the Colossian church so that they would continue growing in the faith.  This is the essence of true encouragement: to propel greater devotion and spiritual growth.  Encouragement is one of the major ways that we can help each other grow.

Moreover, Paul exhorts believers to encourage one another (1 Thess. 5:11).  Scripture is clear and unified that God is the true giver and source of encouragement (Psa. 10:17; 55:22; Lam. 3:25-26; 2 Thess. 2:16-17).  Therefore, we should rely on the Lord to guide us so that we will encourage those that need encouragement.  Praise be to God, that He would choose to encourage His people through us!