Prayer To Be An Encourager During Tough Times

Tuesday September 1, 2020

September 1 – Encourager

Last week we spoke about the unsung hero named Ananias. I was thinking about unsung heroes again yesterday as I watched a technician work on our photocopy machine.

Many of you know that each month we write and print and distribute about 2600 of the little meditation booklets, “Life With God In Recovery.” They are mailed or delivered to prisons all across Canada, to drug and alcohol treatment centers, to drop-in centers and churches and other places of outreach. We send lots to individuals as well.

One of the handy things about having the office in my dining room is that you can work whenever it is convenient. Well, copying the booklets sometimes gets done at odd hours of the day and night. So, it was Sunday evening when the photocopier broke down. We were just past 2000 copies of the current issue so still about 600 more to go. I did everything I knew to do to fix the problem (which is more than I used to know but still not all that much) and then I had to just shut everything down until the morning when I could get in touch with the maintenance company we have a contract with.

The technician and I texted back and forth to see if there was a simple solution – there wasn’t – so he came out and work on the machine. A part was definitely broken and it’s not available for 3 -5 working days. So, this unsung hero worked some kind of “bypass” and the final few hundred copies are printing as I am preparing this video. He’s a guy you’ll never meet but someone so important to the work we do. He and his colleagues who come are intelligent. They fix problems. They are polite and thoughtful. They are decent human beings who care about their work and their clients.

In the Bible, Barnabas was such a man.

Barnabas was a good man,

full of the Holy Spirit and faith.

When he went to Antioch

and saw how God had blessed

the believers there,

he was very happy.

He encouraged them all, saying,

“Always be faithful to the Lord.

Serve him with all your heart.”

Many more people

became followers of the Lord.

Acts 11:23-24

There are a number of stories about Barnabas that shows that being an encourager was his character – in fact his name even means “son of encouragement.” Let’s pray today to be a son or daughter of encouragement as we go about this day, shall we. Let’s pray

Thank you God for people in our lives who encourage us. Some of them do it by what they notice and say; others by simply doing what they do with skill and grace.

So encourage

each other

and help

each other

grow stronger

in faith,

just as you

are already doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

We need encouragers during these days of the pandemic because it’s not always easy to continue to do those things that need to be done to keep the spread of the virus in check. Help us Lord to reach out to others in our family and our community with respect and helpfulness and just be good neighbours to one another.

Give us eyes to see and ears to hear the good that’s going one. The airwaves are full of bad news stories of angry people and unjust actions. Political rhetoric is so harsh and demeaning and is so hard to listen to sometimes. We pray Loving God, to be examples of something different in the middle of this broken and hurting world during this difficult time. May what we say, how we say it, what we do and how we do it encourage others to be better and do better than they could on their own.

As Paul told his young protégé Timothy so we want to follow this advice today:

Tell everyone

God’s message.

Be ready

at all times to do

whatever is needed.

Tell people

what they need to do,

tell them

when they are

doing wrong,

and encourage them.

Do this with

great patience

and careful teaching.

2 Timothy 4:2

Most of all, God, we want to encourage others with the truth that You are the All powerful God and You make us strong. We face many things these days but we can face and overcome challenges as we seek Your help and follow Your heart.

The leaders of Judah

will encourage

the people

and say,

‘The Lord All-Powerful

is your God.

He makes us strong.’

Zechariah 12:5

Thank You for Your Holy Spirit who lives in us to encourage us and make us strong today. Amen