This month is positive encouragement month. We wondered the other day, as a family, why it is positive encouragement month, isn’t encouragement always positive? But we realized that the word could be used in different ways. Encouragement can be used as in heartening or cheering up. The dictionary defines it as “the action of giving someone support, confidence, or hope,” but it can also be used as “persuasion to do or to continue something,” or as “the act of trying to stimulate the development of an activity, state, or belief.” So, we realized it can be used to stimulate people to do evil or to develop wrong attitudes and or beliefs.

That is obviously not our focus today. However, we must start with recognizing we are constantly being encouraged with something and unfortunately most of the input we receive throughout the day is negative encouragement. The TV, the internet, even at times our peers who we interact with encourage us to think things or do things that are not right. But there is a source of real positive encouragement that we need to be focused on daily. The word of God is the most positive source of encouragement that exists in this world, and if we are not looking to it to find that positive encouragement, then every other source will fall short of its mark.

To keep this as short as possible, I will try to summarize things as best I can. To recognize how encouraging God’s word is, we must start with how discouraging our actual state is.

Our Purpose

We live here on earth doing what? For what purpose? If we look around us, it seems to live for our own pleasures, to create what seems to be a successful life fulfilling whatever desires or pleasures we seek. To what end? Dying, being buried and then what? Hoping that there is something better after this life?

Well, there is… or there isn’t. So, that is the encouragement you say? Here is where every human being stands who was conceived by man and born into this world. And this is where the encouragement starts for each one of us. Let’s look at what God’s word says. The greatest positive encouragement we can receive is that which comes when we are in the worst condition.

1. We read in Isaiah 43:6-7 that man was created to bring glory to God. And in 1 Corinthians 10:31, which we have reflected on regularly in our blogs, we are encouraged to do everything to the glory of God.
2. But as Romans 3:23 shows “all have sinned and fall short of the glory of God.”
   Scripture makes it clear that no one seeks God (Romans 3:10-12) and that nothing we do decreases the separation that there is between God and man. Anything we do, even the things that seem good to us, have no eternal value. As a result, we all deserve to be punished. Romans 6:23 says: “For the wages of sin is death, but the free gift of God is eternal life in Christ Jesus our Lord.”
3. So that is the good news. We read in the word of God that: “God shows His love for us in that while we were still sinners, Christ died for us.” (Romans 5:8)

4. 

   The concept behind that is that all mankind deserves to die. No one can create merit for himself by doing good in life. Everyone has committed sin against God and therefore deserves the punishment of death, but God’s son, Jesus Christ, took upon Himself the punishment we deserve fulfilling the legal requirements for our release. Wait, what did you say? Release? Release from what? We are bound to a life leading to death, not just for our time on earth but we are eternally doomed to be separated from God experiencing what the Bible calls, hell. We will experience pain and suffering for all eternity which is not good news. The good news, the Gospel message as found in Scripture, is, however, that when we accept that message and commit to obey the Lord Jesus Christ, our outlook changes. John 3:16 says: “For God so loved the world that he gave his only son, that whoever believes in Him should not perish but have eternal life.” Galatians 3:13 says: “Christ redeemed us from the curse of the law, having become a curse for ”

5. There are many passages in Scripture that talk about the result of believing in Christ Jesus. Here are just a few:
   Romans 10:9 says: “If you confess with your lips that Jesus is Lord and believe in your heart that God raised Him from the dead, you will be saved.” This might sound a little unusual, but this is part of the positive encouragement we find in Scripture that this is not our doing. It is God’s free gift to us as Ephesians 2:8 says, “By grace are you saved through faith; and this is not your own doing, it is the gift of God—not of works, lest any man should boast”
6. In the end, it is Jesus Christ living in us that changes things. We read in Galatians 2:20 “I have been crucified with Christ; it is no longer I who live, but Christ who lives in me; and the life I now live in the flesh I live by faith in the Son of God, who loved me and gave Himself for me.”

Our Encouragement

So, to sum up the most positive encouragement we could ever receive, as people who have a very bleak future because we are all sinners and are in rebellion to our Creator and God, we have the hope that by faith we can know God and live for God in a way that brings Him glory and honor. If you have thought about this and are prompted to submit to the Lord Jesus Christ, don’t hesitate and make that commitment of obedience to Him today. Then you will know the reality of the most positive encouragement you will ever receive.