Build Each Other Up

Therefore, encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

(1 Thessalonians 5:11)

I know what it’s like to try my hardest on a job or project and not receive deserved recognition. After that happened a few times I began to question if it was worth my best efforts when no one even notices. It’s the same for those who work for the Lord. Everyone from volunteers to paid church staff need encouragement. Many ministers, elders, deacons and teachers in our churches hear only criticism from the very people who should be building them up.

This scripture isn’t limited to the workers in church. When I get together with believers or unbelievers, I should always try to find something to boost others up. We all get beaten down by work, or other things in the world. As Christ followers, we shouldn’t do the same thing to each other when we are each set apart by God. There’s an old saying, “If you can’t say anything nice don’t say anything at all.” A better saying would be, “Always say something nice, never withhold a compliment.”

I shouldn’t have to be prompted to encourage someone. It should be my first thought and the first words out of my mouth. This also applies to my witness to the unbelievers around me. If I am always boosting up the spirits of co-workers, I’ll attract people to what I have in my heart, which is Jesus. Everyone needs that “pat on the back” so let’s be willing to be the ones doing the patting.

While he was blessing them, he left them and was taken up into heaven.

(Luke 24:51)

Father God, what can we say to exalt you enough? There is nothing in our existence that we can compare you to. No normal human, living or dead, can stand up to the standards you have set. After you raised Jesus from the sacrificial death of his crucifixion, he walked among the believers for many days. He was giving the Apostles his last instructions for sharing the good news. We thank you for those last few days he spent with the faithful. It’s a good eyewitness testimony that Jesus is who he said he was. Even though the Apostles had been told everything they needed to know, the shock of his crucifixion had dulled their memories and their resolve. They needed the added boost of the preaching of the risen Christ to give them the determination to carry out the commands of Jesus. Now, Lord God, we ask that he quickly return to us in a like manner as he left. In his name, we pray. Amen!