To me the worst disease within humanity’s choices is apathy. The devil delights in turning contentment into apathy. He delights in stopping the workings of God with apathy. He can reverse the energy of anger and direct it into bitterness and from bitterness create apathy and when the Believer is a victim of apathy the devil has it made! However, God has a quick answer to the devil’s tricks – one solid answer is Faith! Amen and amen! Faith with all its wonders of God’s gifts is energy. The energy of faith eats up the corrosion of apathy and will survive by the power of its divine origin when all else falters, fades and fails. What an awesome gift God has given us the capacity to exercise. I had a precious friend, Jody Elliott, who died recently and amid the tears and sorrows of her funeral I heard from each speaker the result of Jody’s never-faltering encouragement. She had a phrase that started the ignitions of all who knew her. After positive and thoughtful deliberation she would say, “Well let’s just do it.” There need be training, thoughtfulness, deliberation and consultation, but after all the proper preparation has been done, how deeply we need someone to say, “Well let’s just do it!” Trying a new thing is frightening. It deserves full and prayerful preparation. Failure is not a welcome mat, but often encouragement is the key that opens the door. God is the divine encourager! And sometimes, His people have special opportunity to encourage each other.
Recently on my way home from work, I stopped in for a quick shopping at my grocery store. The day at work had been a heavy day of work, I mean WORK. The kind of work that means attending to two things of equal importance at the same time with two things waiting your attention; the kind of work that doesn’t quite make the grade and has to be done over again tomorrow; the kind of work that allows the budget to laugh in your face when you thought you had just achieved a balance. Now my grocery store offers me just as much fellowship as it does food and I relished the friendly greetings of manager and servers as I hurried through my shopping list. Turning the corner of one aisle my basket ran into another basket and I greeted a friend hurrying at the same pace I was using. My friend smiled and said, “I was just thinking about you! The work you do is such a blessing to us. Thank you for what you do!” I almost cried. That friend added words like Jody’s encouragement and oh, how I needed it that day. You encourage me by reading this message and I thank you. Your path this day may lead you to offer encouragement to one who has no one but you to offer it. Claim this day as the day to be one of God’s team of encouragers like Jody and Janie and Marge and Nancy and my husband and my friends who no longer meet me in the grocery aisles but whose encouragement outlasts the years. Avoid apathy. It is a deadly weed that saps the beauty of flowers, threatens the words of faith, postpones the action of goodness and will never get the good job done. God, thank You for the encouragers who stock the best food in the grocery stores!
Letters of Encouragement by Jeannette Clift George
