Monday... Encouragement has two sides to it.

One side is to be encouraged to live a different way, to see our actions from a different perspective and to be encouraged to not do something. Proverbs 17:5 (MSG) gives us a great encouragement. And we need it in the day in which we live. It says, "Whoever mocks poor people insults their Creator; gloating over misfortune is a punishable crime." I have kept coming back to this verse as I have read my three chapters today. So it seems like we must need this encouragement.

It can be so easy for us as Christians to look down on other people but in reality we are insulting God. When we put down poor people, or people of other races and gloat over them, we are in fact insulting God, their Creator and that is not a good thing. It is a punishable crime. This verse is encouraging us to live a better way.

We don't want to be punished by God, do we?

1 Corinthians 10:12 (NLT) says, "If you think you are standing strong, be careful not to fall." The writer who is the Apostle Paul continues with an encouraging word. Verse 13 says, "The temptations in your life are no different from what others experience. And God is faithful. He will not allow the temptation to be more than you can stand. When you are tempted, he will show you a way out so that you can endure."

You see that when we are tempted to put down the poor or other races, God will be faithful to give us a way out. He doesn't want to punish us, he wants us to endure. So God is faithful. He will do what he can to keep us from insulting him. Hr has to punish us for that. So when you are tempted to put down someone who is a creation of God then stop for a moment and see that God has given you a way out. He doesn't want to punshist us, he wants us to endure.

And that is another side of encouragement. We don't have to give in to the temptation of putting down other people who were also created by God. He will give us a way out of this temptation so we will not be punished. It might be that his Spirit will remind us of this Proverb. And that is such an encouragement, isn't it? Yes, yes! #todaysbeginning

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