Doing as Christ did - LOVE

LOVE

In this final look at the Stop. Listen. Love. principle we look at love. I will soon be sharing on anger and how it can hinder our love, but for now, let's continue with love. If we are going to encourage one another in love we need to know the following:

1. Don't let go. I think the most encouraging part of the crucifixion story is that Christ never let go. His act of love was so great that He never let go, even to the point of death. If we are going to encourage others, we need to stick by them. It’s one thing to say “You can do it!” But it’s another to support someone as they do it. You can encourage a tight-rope walker to cross to the other side, but will you get in the wheelbarrow that he’s pushing? Not letting go lets the other person know exactly how committed we are to helping them!

2. By not letting go, we are availing ourselves to be a part of the miracle that God is going to do in that person’s life. God is the very centre of love, it is the essence of His nature. Love can only exist where God is, and where God is, miracles happen. I don't know about you, but I mostly see miracles happen when we rely more on GOD's power and love, especially when times are tough. The saying "When the going gets tough, the tough get going." reminds us about the world's mentality. Being tough means that we stick around, our reward is that we become a part of GOD's miracles!

3. Encouragement is infectious – and here’s how we can grow church in encouragement. As we encourage those around us, they will be better equipped to encourage others too. If we have a culture of encouragement, people will feel like church is a place to belong do.

So, just as 1 Thess 5:11 says to keep encouraging as we are already in the habit of doing, I encourage you to keep doing the same. I think that we should encourage ALL THE TIME. We shouldn’t just encourage those who are down and oppressed, we should also encourage those who are doing fantastically well.

At the end of the Comrades Marathon, the crowds don’t only encourage the last 5000 people, if anything, they shout loudest for the front runners!

The winner receives thunderous applause as they enter the stadium – but why, they’re first, they don’t need encouragement. Let’s ignore them, they’ll be fine! Sounds ridiculous, but that’s so often how we treat those in church who do well, we get a little jealous, a little threatened.

So, what comes out of our mouths? Discouragement… and that’s when we get stuck in the place that I started talking about earlier. The place when church is no longer a place where people want to be.

Instead – we should be going out of our way to encourage one another – at every opportunity - to show Christ's love!