Your Faith Needs Encouragement (Part 3)
In my last post in this mini series on Romans 1:11-12, I showed from the New Testament how your personal faith can be an encouragement to other believers. Now that you understand the truths in Romans 1:11-12, I want to give you five implications the passage has for your life.
For I long to see you, that I may impart to you some spiritual gift to strengthen you—that is, that we may be mutually encouraged by each other’s faith, both yours and mine.
Romans 1:11-12, ESV
Implication 1: Your faith isn’t a static thing. It needs to grow and be encouraged
Think of Abraham. You see that he had faith in God’s promises. Yet this faith grew throughout Genesis until you see Abraham willing to even sacrifice his own son Isaac. Your trust in the Lord can grow and develop and find new expressions of obedience. And other Christians might have what you need to grow in your faith.
Your individual experience is not the whole of the Christian life. It isn’t even normative. You need the perspective of others to see where your faith is lacking or weak. It can be so easy to write people off in the Church. You can look at someone and say “well, they don’t know as much as I do” or “I don’t think they are obeying the Lord in this or that way” or simply “I don’t connect with them. I don’t care for them.”
But remember: Paul undoubtedly knew more truth than the Church in Rome. Yet Paul was aching to meet with the Church because he was not above being encouraged by those believers.
Anyone who loves the Lord has the potential to encourage you by their faith. Anytime you are going to meet with another believer, your soul should brim with anticipation.
Why? Any believer you meet with according to Scripture has the Holy Spirit dwelling in their heart, who has had their eyes open to see truth about the Lord, and who knows God. The living God. The creator of the universe! And God could use that interaction to grow or encourage your faith. To COMFORT you in a tough time you are going through.
You never know what is going to happen when you talk or meet with a brother or sister in Christ. That leads me to the next implication.
Implication 2: You need the local Church
Certainly, you can get encouragement from any believer. And you should!. Every Time you have a chance to talk with a fellow Christian, there is the potential for that conversation to help strengthen your faith. But where primarily are you going to interact with fellow believers? The Church. The local Church. Families who are not related by blood, but who have covenanted together to worship together, serve together, and live their lives together.
In my Church’s membership covenant, there is a line that says “I will bring to (the Church) such faith and comfort as I have means to render.” I love that line. Your membership is about glorifying God and blessing others. So bring your faith! Your faith encourages and comforts others in the body.
To put it another way, when you gather with the body, is this your goal? What are you aiming for in your interactions? Are you coming with a self-focused perspective? Romans 1:11-12 gives you a good goal and aim for when we gather together as a body: mutual encouragement from each other’s faith!
Do you have an intense desire to be around other believers? In Romans 1:11-12, Paul didn’t say “you know, if I get around to it, it would be nice if I got to see you Roman Christians.” Paul had an intense longing to visit this Church. A Church he had never met. Do you have that same sort of longing to be with believers? More particularly, do you long to be with Christians you have committed to in your local body?
If Paul had an intense longing to be among believers in Rome who he had not met, how much more should you long to be around believers who you know and see week after week?
So those are the first two implications: Your faith needs encouragement, and You need the local Church
Implication 3: Talk about your faith with other believers
One of my favorite passages is in Deuteronomy 6:
These words that I am giving you today are to be in your heart. Repeat them to your children. Talk about them when you sit in your house and when you walk along the road, when you lie down and when you get up.
emphasis added
If you want to encourage others with your faith, the first step is to talk about your faith. If you never share what is going on spiritually in your life or if you never ask another believer what God is doing spiritually in their lives, how are you going to mutually encourage each other?
Certainly seeing faith in action is an encouragement, but I would argue most of the time it is hearing about what God is doing in other believers lives that encourages you. How do you start those conversations? One time at a conference, I heard two really good questions to ask fellow believers:
One time at a conference I heard two really good questions to ask fellow believers:
- How has the Lord been growing you in your knowledge of Him lately?
- How has the Lord been growing you in living out your faith lately?
Ask questions like these when you are around other believers. Answer these questions when you are around other believers. Talking about your faith is the surest way to go from a normal conversation to a mutually encouraging one.
I’ll go a step further: Even if you don’t get asked spiritual questions, still answer them. Talk about the Lord! Sin and pride keeps us from always boasting in Christ and in God. But the more you talk about something, the easier it will become to talk about it.
Make it a habit when you are together with fellow believers to ask about their faith & their walk with the Lord
And the reality is: if you are individually pursuing the Lord and developing a relationship with Christ then it should not take much effort to start talking about Him with other believers.
Implication 4: Don’t think your faith is above encouragement from others
Christ’s address to the Church in Laodicea is one of the most sobering sections of Scripture in my opinion. And to me one of the scariest lines of all is simply this:
“Because you say I am rich; i have become wealthy and need nothing,” and you don’t know that you are wretched, pitiful, poor, blind, and naked
Revelation 3:17, ESV
It can become very easy as Christian at a spiritual level to think this about your faith. Self-satisfaction is a constant danger for the believer, particularly when it comes to faith. If your life is going fine, if you are “in a groove” spiritually so to speak, you can easily slip into the thinking “I don’t need to grow in my faith! It would be nice but I’m pretty much set right now.”
As soon as you slip into that mindset, you stop looking for encouragement from other believers. You stop asking other believers questions, you stop noticing the ways their faith is being lived out. Why? Because of spiritual pride.
As soon as you fall into the mindset of “I don’t need other believers,” you think that you are stronger than Scripture says you are. “You who stand take heed lest you fall.”
Spiritual pride says “I got this! My faith doesn’t need encouragement from others! In fact other believers should be coming to me for advice!” Let Romans 1:11-12 warn you against that mindset.
You would agree that Paul’s faith was undoubtedly strong, he was undoubtedly serving the Lord and loving Christ. Yet Paul was not above encouragement from other believers. Why? Because Paul was humble. Paul said to the Corinthians “What do you have that you did not receive? If then you received it, why do you boast as if you did not receive it?
The Christian is humble because there is no room for pride in the gospel.
Don’t be deceived. You need the body of Christ more than you think. Even if it is true that you are in a good place spiritually, there is still more to know and to grow. You serve an infinitely glorious God. There should never be a time when we have had enough of Him or enough of Christ. humble yourself and admit that you need other believers.
Implication 5: Even small things build up the Church
“Do not despise the day of small things.” It is so easy as a Christian in America to only focus on the big things: Numbers. Success. Impact. You and I live in a culture where bigger is better and if you aren’t noticed you are told you are not important. I read this quote in a secular book a few months ago: “You are either great or you don’t exist.”
That is the wisdom of the world. You are either great or you don’t exist. What a sad, misinformed perspective. God is great and You exist because God is great to show God is great, to enjoy His greatness. But this mindset of “I have to be or do something great to make my life valuable” is everywhere.
How does this mindset manifest in the Church? Personally, I find in my own life I always have to be doing something. Maybe you feel like you need to serve in such and such ministry. Maybe you want to teach or be the “wise Christian” people come to for advice.
What Romans 1:11-12 encourages you to see is that even little conversations can have bigger impact than you think. “Don’t despise the day of small things.” You might not have a massive ministry, but you can encourage someone else in the faith. By encouraging a fellow believer you can bless them and the Church.
Other believers need to hear what the Lord is teaching you. You might think “I am not the smartest in the room, I don’t have the strongest faith, I don’t know the most Scripture.” Let Romans 1:11-12 encourage you: you do have something to bring to the table! You do have a role to play in the life of the Church.
Speak and share your faith. It doesn’t have to be eloquent but your faith, your walk with the Lord can be a blessing to others. You might not be able to teach a Sunday School, but you can share something God has been teaching you. You may not get called on to lead a ministry, but you can tell someone about an area God has allowed you to be obedient in. You might not be the one everyone goes to for life advice and wisdom, but you can share lessons God has taught you from your own war against sin.
God has given you everything you need to bless the Church, to help other believers: your faith. Your love for Christ. Your personal commitment to follow Him as laid out in Scripture. Your voice as you sing praises to God on a Sunday morning.
You are well equipped to bless your local Church and any other believer you come in contact with. Why? Because of Christ, because of the gift of faith God has granted you.
Conclusion
I have listened to sermons and read great books but the most impactful thing in my life has always been consistent spiritual conversation with other people who love the Lord and who know the Lord. Paul could not wait to get to Rome so that his faith could be encouraged and so that he give encouragement to the Roman Church with his faith.
Next time you are talking with a believer, ask yourself and ask the Lord “How is this interaction mutually encouraging our faith?” God uses ordinary conversations about Christ to produce fruit in our lives.
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