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…encourage one another, and build each other up…

~ 1 Thessalonians 5:11

 

Gooooood morning dear sister!

This IS the day that the Lord has made! If you are reading this, He has given YOU another day to rejoice and be glad in all His good plans for YOU!

A sister in the church commented to me one Sunday that I always seem so positive and encouraging. As much as I wanted to bask in her admiration, the Holy Spirit compelled me to remain truthful. 

I don’t always see the bright side. I become easily dismayed when I see all the negative things around me. I get hurt and frustrated and am tempted to become bitter. Sometimes my anger gets poured out and smeared all over my Sister2Sister. Then, it’s time for repentance and a rewrite.

Part of our calling as believers is to respond to each other with encouragement. For me, as a sister writing to my beloved sisters, it is my job to be an example of encouragement. I am thankful that God is merciful to me in allowing me to write my thoughts to you, rather than speaking whatever is in my heart at the moment, which I might regret later! Writing gives me the time to weigh, measure and sometimes erase my words. I have a chance to pray and consider the influence they may have on those reading them. 

Although I may spend many days (and pages) getting my attitude right before the Lord, it is not a burden, but rather a joy to know that God is working within me to mold me and make me according to His good will! It is liberating to give up my worries, sorrow, fear and longings to the Lord. Let Him deal with it!

How do we let Him do that? The Lord wants us to walk with Him, we are not meant to navigate this world on our own! Deut. 10:12 gives us the roadmap for walking with God: ‘What does the Lord require of you?

  1.  to revere only the Lord your God 

  2.  to walk in all His ways and love Him 

  3.  to serve the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul,

  4.  and to keep the commandments of the Lord your God.’ 

Walking with God implies movement. When I was first born again, I sang a very popular song that went like, “I have decided to follow Jesus…. no turning back, no turning back.’  But my emphasis was on no turning back, not following Jesus. By the grace of God I grew like a tender little plant because He fed me and watered me, and I was content with my relationship with Him. I thought I was walking with Him, but the truth is that I had kind of parked myself on a bench in His glorious garden while marriage and motherhood took over my natural life. Decades of church services, prayer and Bible reading flew by! Can you relate?

Then one day I heard a shocking reply to my polite inquiry of “How are you?”. The response to my query was, “Loving Jesus and moving forward!” Wow! That was a challenge to my happy-sitting-in-God’s-garden heart! 

Moving forward? Yes, I guess if I want to walk with God, I’ve got to get up and move, not just bask in His garden. My first step was to start replying to others in that way, and the amazing thing is, it not only reminds me to move forward, but has actually caused me to move forward in my relationship with God! As I’ve gotten up off my garden bench and started to walk around His garden with Him, I’ve seen sights and wonders that I never dreamed of before! 

I find myself wanting to pursue Him more, and the closer I get, the more I want Him to make me like Him. I still have the same storms in my life, in fact some new ones are brewing, but I see God’s faithful hand in it and I trust Him more and more. I see Him above it all and my hope is in Him, not in what I can do. 

So, why not be joyful, thankful, positive and encouraging in His presence? It is a witness that God is living and working in us; we are made to reflect His love and His glory! When we encourage our brothers and sisters, we help them to grow. Confidence in God increases our positive outlook. And look out, that positive encouragement can be contagious! May it grow into a pandemic!

As you encourage others, you will find yourself encouraged as well. That’s how it works in the kingdom of God! God is so good!

Now, my beautiful sister, my encouragement for you today is that the God of all hope will fill YOU with joy and peace in believing, so that by the POWER of the Holy Spirit, you may ABOUND in hope! (Romans 15:13) And then, you will encourage someone else!

Keep loving Jesus and moving forward!

With love, your sister, Celeste