Help The Harvest

    When a plant sits in the sun a long time and isn't being watered enough it dies. I remember back in elementary school when I chose to do an experiment involving plants for my science project. I had to switch to doing something else because my plant still hadn't grown when it was less than a week before the project was due. I knew I had to expose it to sun and provide it with water but I just kind of, sort of forgot. How many of you just kind of, sort of forget to encourage your friends, children, employees, and maybe even your spouses?

    Well if you can't encourage someone when they do right then who says you have the right to discourage someone when they make a mistake? When we're always telling people what to do it comes off 100% of the time as nagging. Let's be real for a second. The majority of the time many people mistake telling the truth as being bold when in all actuality it's not going to do a thing (See "Judge and Judge Not" for more). Yes, we should tell others the truth and let God talk to the person if it offends them, but think about yourself for a moment.

    Who's really telling the truth in love? Who's really helping the person by telling them what to do without telling them how? It is by the GRACE of God that we have been saved (Ephesians 2:8) and it is by the Holy Spirit doing His work in us (1 Peter 1:2) that we may be obedient. So telling someone to do this and that is ineffective without a humble, gentle, loving explanation of this.

    Without the focus being on God's grace we're focusing on OUR work and when we focus on our work we're the ones who get the glory when we do "good" or when we "fulfill our call". We know that NO ONE should get the glory except Jesus Christ. Without Him we could try our hardest to do what is right but we would still be bound by the law. So build each other UP in your faith. Encourage others in doing what is lovely and pleasing in the sight of the LORD. Love on them! Most importantly encourage yourself to do the same in doing what's right by being the example, love yourself so that you may show others how.

*Challenge yourself* - Go out of your way to build someone up who looks downcast whether you know them or not whether it's buying them coffee or giving them a compliment that shows the love of Christ. #LoveLikeChrist

Hebrews 3:13 - "But exhort one another every day, as long as you call it today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness."

Ephesians 2:8 - "For it is by grace you have been saved, through faith - and this is not from yourselves, it is the gift of God."

1 Peter 1:2 - "...who have been chosen according to the foreknowledge of God the Father, through the sanctifying work of the Spirit, to be obedient to Jesus Christ and sprinkled with his blood: Grace and peace be yours in abundance."