Speaking of encouragement

Posted by Alan Knox on Mar 31, 2009 in blog links, edification, gathering | 3 comments

Did you see this post from Chris at “Filtering Life through the Cross” called “A Word of Encouragement“?

This past Sunday morning as I was preparing to gather with the church I was standing at the door greeting people as I usually like to do. This day woould be different from the others. A sister in the Lord appraoched me and began to inform me of a group of other sisters in the Lord of which she is a part. They challenged one another to speak a word of encouragement to someone this week. She went on to inform me that she prayed to seek God’s guidance as to who it was that He wanted her to speak a word of encouragement. I was the one who came ot her mind. She proceeded to tell me that I was a blessing to her at a corn-beef and cabbage dinner that was hosted by our women’s ministry a few weeks ago. After the dinner ended I stayed behind and proceeded to help with taking down and puuting away tables and so forth. But what she said next was really the word of encouragement to me. She said, “I was really blessed by you becasue you choose to stay behind and help clean up. It is as if you are one of us, not seperate from us and tht really means a lot to me.” Even though I am called to serve the church, I am no different from the rest of the church. I am no better; I am no holier; I am not more sanctified; I do not have a more direct line to Jesus than any other Christ-follower. I was encouraged and blessed by this sister on that morning. For all the things I do wrong, sometimes I get it right.

I pray that I will grow to reflect more and more the humble servant-leadership that our Lord calls us to exemplify in our day-to-day lifestyle.

I like that prayer.