Daily EncouragementSample

No one is given a gift of discouragement! To discourage the people of God in particular is a sin to be avoided, as we saw in an earlier meditation (February 15). However, it is clear that some people are given a special gift of encouragement. We still have those among us today who deserve to be called “sons of encouragement” (Acts 4:36).

Encouragement is related to consolation, comfort, exhortation and so on, as the various translations show. There is nothing weak about it; it is a word of strength. Prophecy and exhortation must have been closely connected gifts in New Testament times, as preaching and encouragement are now. Preaching should “speak to men for their strengthening, encouragement and comfort” (1 Cor. 14:3).

The gift of encouraging is obviously not confined to men or preachers! All who exercise it will find the Scriptures a chief source of encouragement, as they lead the discouraged to find “encouragement from being united with Christ” (Rom. 15:4; Phil. 2:1).

Here is a gift to desire:

Ask God to give thee skill
In Comfort’s art;
That thou mayest consecrated be
And set apart
Into a life of sympathy.
For heavy is the weight of ill
In every heart;
And comforters are needed much
of Christlike touch.
( A. E. Hamilton)