Bible Text: Deuteronomy 1:38 | Speaker: Dr. Harold J. Sala | Series: Guidelines For Living | But your assistant, Joshua son of Nun, will enter it. Encourage him, because he will lead Israel to inherit it. Deuteronomy 1:38

You may have heard of the sad plight of the man who, greatly discouraged, crawled out on the ledge of a very high building and contemplated suicide. A friend, hearing of the dilemma, took it upon himself to offer a word of encouragement. Finding the friend, he said, “I’ve come to encourage you…” “No, I’m going to jump. It’s no use.” “Before you do anything violent, let’s talk this thing over,” said the friend. They did.

Don’t underestimate the power of influence you have and its potential for encouraging another person to do right. Encouragement, by way of a simple definition, is the act of bringing courage to another. Nevertheless, if you make a study of the topic of “encouragement” in the world’s best loved textbook on living, the Bible, you will discover that it is used almost as many times to depict men who encouraged others to do evil as those who influenced for good.

Just as discouragement is contagious, so is a word of encouragement as it lifts spirits and spreads to others. You might think of yourself as a light in a pretty dark spot, perhaps in an office or a shop. If you have been thinking of quitting to find a job where there aren’t so many gloomy people, remember, God may have put you there precisely to be an encouragement to those who are not as strong.

Only eternity will reveal how decisive was a word of encouragement to a person in the overall scope of history. We do know from the Biblical record that at least twice the great leader of God’s people, Moses, was charged by God to encourage Joshua (Deuteronomy. 1:38; 3:28). When Isaiah wrote the prophetic passage telling about the rebuilding of the temple, he described what would happen in these words. “They helped everyone his neighbor; and everyone 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 soldering: and he that fastened it with nails, that it should not be moved.” (Isaiah 41:7, KJV).

Then there is Barnabas, the littleknown figure in church history who played such a great part in the life of the Apostle Paul. In reality, Barnabas, the farmer from the island of Crete, was the man who discovered the Apostle Paul. It was he who put faith in Paul when everyone else was dubious of his sincerity. Barnabas not only brought Paul to the council of elders in Jerusalem, but it was he who later sought out the tentmaker and encouraged him to give up his tentmaking and enter the Lord’s work.

Like the fellow I mentioned in the beginning, a lot of people are at the very brink, discouraged, wondering what to do. Perhaps you are one of them. There seems to be no one who offers a word of encouragement. Then what? You can do what David the king of Israel once did. He found himself in the most bitter of circumstances. His city had been destroyed with fire. His family had been taken captive by the enemy. His own soldiers were ready to turn on him to kill him. “David was greatly distressed,” says I Samuel 30:6, “for the people spake of stoning him, because the soul of all the people was grieved, every man for his sons and for his daughters: but David encouraged himself in the LORD His God (KJV).” The last phasethe upward lookis the only answer. DAVID ENCOURAGED HIMSELF IN THE LORD. Remember this when you feel like saying, “Stop the world; I want to get off.” The upward look dwarfs the circumstances pulling us down. Thank God for the strength of encouragement.

Resource reading: Psalm 121