MONDAY
Christianese If You Please
“If God brings you to it he will bring you through it.”
Unlike the Christianese from our last couple of weeks this phrase is not necessarily unbiblical. It is however a little cheesy.
One of the ways that God will “bring you through it” is with the encouragement of the saints.
The Hebrew word most often translated encouraged (hazak) in the Old Testament literally means strengthen, make strong, solidify, give courage, repair, sustain. The image then is to repair or strengthen a building or a structure. When remodeling an old building you will likely encounter some studs, floor joists or ceiling trusses that are weak or failing. In the process of remodeling then those will either need to be replaced or you can nail another strong piece alongside that one to support and strengthen it to keep that piece failing. This is the idea behind the Greek word most often translated encourage in the New Testament—parakaleō. This word literally means to speak alongside and it means to urge, implore, exhort, encourage. So with these two words give us a good picture of encouragement.
Therefore, our phrase for this week is, “May God strengthen you.” I love this phrase for a couple of reasons:
- This phrase reminds us of where our true strength comes from.
- This gives us words to say in situations in which words often elude us.
Psalm 18:1–2 1 I love you, O Lord, my strength. 2 The Lord is my rock and my fortress and my deliverer, my God, my rock, in whom I take refuge, my shield, and the horn of my salvation, my stronghold.
There are many among us who are suffering and going through difficult times. When we are speaking with someone in the midst of suffering we are often at a loss for words. We want to say it will all get better soon but we usually don’t know that it will. We want to fix the problem but we know we can’t. What can mere words do in the midst of such suffering? Whereas we can’t fix the problems and we don’t always know the words to say to cheer someone’s heart, we know someone who does. So with this phrase—”may God strengthen you”—we are blessing the ones who are suffering. We are projecting God’s goodness into their lives. We are asking God to strengthen their faith, help them trust in the spiritual blessings God has given them, and encouraging them to persevere through the difficulty.
So, again this is a phrase of encouragement that we can genuinely say when someone is suffering and it points us to where our true strength lies.
I want to close today with Paul’s charge in Ephesians 4. In the context he is giving a number of quick imperatives in rapid fire.
Ephesians 4:29 29 Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.
Here Paul uses a different Greek word that more closely aligns with the Hebrew term for encourage. The word is oikodomeō. This a combination of the words for house and roof. Again, it implies strengthening as the ESV translates it above. The alternative is words that are corrupting. This word means rotten, worthless, or bad. The words that we speak then can either be worthless, meaningless banter or just small talk. Or worse the words that we speak to one another can lead to soul rot, corruption and decay.
Let’s take this building metaphor as a further illustration. When we were renovating the building that is now our church we had a lot of demo work to do at first. The demo went relatively quickly and the labor was unskilled, so anyone who could swing a sledge hammer or carry material could help. The construction process however was just the opposite. It went much slower than the demo. We hired skilled professionals to do the plumbing, electrical and framing. This is a great example of the power of our words. It will only take a few words to tear someone down and discourage them. Anybody can do that. Building someone up however, is a skill that we must acquire. It will take time, like learning, a trade to learn how to encourage. It will go more slowly as negative words tend to stick in our minds more than positive words. Yet, in the end our positive words can help support God’s beautiful remodeling project within our brothers and sisters in Christ.
So Paul’s imperative for the church is to speak words of encouragement, words that build up and strengthen one another. These words have the power to “give grace to those who hear”. Encouraging words, project God’s grace into the lives of others.
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Reflection
Examine your words over the last couple of days. Have they been more building up or tearing down. Think of a time your words tore someone down and repent. Think of a time your words encouraged and built someone up and rejoice in God’s goodness being projected into their lives.