Pouring Courage into Others
- Larry Kutzler
- Oct 29
- 3 min read
Our world is mostly about complaining. If you watch the news to any degree, you don’t feel more courageous by it, in fact, you probably feel more defeated and depressed. Even listening to the conversations you have during a day, how would you rate the percentage of complaining compared to encouragement? I think, by nature, most of us are on the negative scale … unless something changes our direction.
In a recent study I did with a few new friends, I posted this following our time together.
Have you ever thought about putting courage into someone? That is what you do when you practice encouragement. In fact, the Greek word ‘paraklesis’ means to come alongside to put into them … courage. The Holy Spirit is credited for doing just that as it says in Romans 12:8, it is His gift to us. In my understanding, encouragement is both a gift and a choice. The choice is one we make on behalf of God to bring a new perspective into play in someone’s life. Living with a spirit of grace toward others is another form of encouragement, because grace is what God gives to all of us. If there was one quality our Churches should emulate, it is encouragement. Pouring courage into others is how we should be known. ~Larry Kutzler, Facebook Post
Application Applied
Think about how much you need encouragement, especially if you never hear it. I have gone months without a single word from anyone about my performance in anything that I did. Now, all of us realize that we don’t do things for the praise it may bring … we do it because that is what we do. As human beings, we were created for relationship and not isolation, so we need interaction with other people.
I think about this Verse a lot lately:
Galatians 6:7 Don’t be misled—you cannot mock the justice of God. You will always harvest what you plant.
We often hear that spoken like this, “You reap what you sow. You get out of life what you put in. If you put nothing in, you get nothing out.” So, the question I had to ask myself, “How often are you sowing encouragement into others?” Perhaps I answered my own dilemma of not hearing any encouragement for long periods of time. Encourage what God gives to us through His grace … we need to pass that on to others. For us, besides the Holy Spirit reminding us about practicing encouragement, we need to make a choice to do it.
The Last Word
Cultivating a lifestyle of encouragement takes practice and if we are to do it proficiently, we must create a habit to do it. They tell us it takes 59 to 70 days to form a lasting habit, so it will take time. However long it may take, the result is great for you and for those you pour courage into … everyone walks away a winner.
Challenging the Culture with Truth … Larry Kutzler