Food for the Soul Monday: Today

Have you ever had the experience of receiving an encouragement exactly at the time you needed it? It may be through someone you didn’t even know but you knew how much you needed to hear it. I have. Many a times. And I’ve seen those experiences as God’s way of saying, “I see you.”
 
You know who else sees us? The enemy of our souls. And he doesn’t see us to protect us and remind us of his love for us but to bring us to a place where we can’t muster the strength to know with deep conviction that God is with us. He desires to bring us to a place where we question God and doubt His faithfulness to us. He works overtime to have us rely on ourselves rather than God…to lean on our understanding and take matters into our own hands. He is deceitful.
 
So what does have to do with encouragement? Scripture in Hebrews 3:13 tells us this, “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called "Today," so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness.”
 
Encouragement isn’t just for our “feel good” emotion. This verse reveals that it’s a daily necessity to help us maintain this faith walk. It reveals that without the sustaining reminder of God’s love through Jesus, we are prone to be hardened in our hearts. We need each other to keep the fire of God flaming. This is what the church as a community can do for us. This is what friendship in the Lord should do.
 
Ladies, let’s make it a priority to encourage one another in the faith. This week, I encourage you to call or reach out to a friend and encourage them of God’s word and His love over them. Remind them of the great length the Father went in giving us His Son as a ransom for our salvation. That they are justified and redeemed and are free from the bondage of sin. That they are no longer bound by condemnation. That God thinks of them and will provide for them greater than He provides for the lilies of the field or the birds of the air. Encourage them. It’s our duty.
 
Peace, love and blessings,
Yodit