Fight To Be An Encouragement | The Odyssey Online
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Fight To Be An Encouragement

Yes...even when you don't feel like it.

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Fight To Be An Encouragement
Chelsie Bartley

I’ve found that on some days, I just want to care about me.

I want to wear whatever clothes I feel like, I want to keep my ear buds in and block out the world around me and I just want a day where I don’t have to care for someone else.

It’s on days like these that I feel very far from God.

Not that he is far, but that I’ve forgotten to keep chasing after him.

Mostly, on days like these I feel empty.

I have racked my brain trying to figure out why this is.

Why, when I care for people on a regular basis do I feel cold and distant when I decide I just don’t want to.

Here’s the answer:

On the outside, to the eye of a person who maybe doesn’t believe in God, we are selfish, cruel and heartless people.

When you strip us down from what’s culturally and religiously acceptable and “the right thing to do,” there really isn’t much left.

But when you take into consideration how loved we are by God, someone who owes us nothing, somehow not caring isn’t an option anymore.

When you look at your life for what it is, a series of moments in which we might choose to do something moderately important, you start to realize that your life isn't the only one that matters.

However, when you look at Christ’s life for what it was, 33 years of caring for and teaching his fellow man, only to die at the hands of those he promised to love, your life gets a little, well… little.

You start to understand what the Bible means when it tells us to stir up one another.

Hebrews 10:23-25 says, “Let us hold fast the confession of our hope without wavering, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

We have a good bearing on whether or not someone has a good day or succeeds in their endeavors.

We can either build up or break down.

Galatians 6:2, “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Even on your worst day, you can help your friends and family through the worst circumstances.

Eventually, they will return the favor.

The day will come again when I think I’d just like to stay in my own bubble.

The introvert inside me will pout about having to interact.

But the Christian inside me will be refreshed by the fulfillment of the Gospel as I love and encourage those around me.

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12, “Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil. For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up! Again, if two lie together, they keep warm, but how can one keep warm alone? And though a man might prevail against one who is alone, two will withstand him—a threefold cord is not quickly broken.”

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