A Short Devotion on Encouragement for Your Next Meeting

📖 1 Thessalonians 5:11

“Wherefore comfort yourselves together, and edify one another, even as also ye do.”

💭 Reflection

Paul writes this to a church that was already doing it, he's affirming a habit, not introducing a foreign idea. Encouragement isn't flattery or empty praise, the word here means to build up, to add something that makes someone stronger for what's ahead. A meeting is a small, regular opportunity to do that on purpose. Most groups default to noticing what's wrong, since problems demand attention, which means genuine encouragement usually has to be a deliberate choice rather than something that happens automatically.

✅ In Practice

Before this meeting ends, make sure at least one person hears something specific and true about work they did well, not a generic "good job," an actual detail worth naming. If you can't think of anything, that's worth noticing, it may mean you haven't been paying close enough attention.

🗣 Discuss

Who in this room could use a specific, genuine word of encouragement today?

🙏 Pray

Lord, help us build each other up today, not just get through the agenda. Show us who needs to hear something true and good from us, and give us the attentiveness to actually notice it instead of rushing past each other. Amen.