“Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path. And be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.” (Galatians 6:1 NLT)

Happy Friday everyone! An unknown source was quoted as saying this, “A minute of encouragement following a failure is worth more than an hour of praise after a success.” You know, there’s so much truth in that phrase, and especially throughout Scripture, the idea of encouraging someone, especially when they have fallen, is critical, and it’s something that we are called as brothers and sisters in Christ to participate in.

Why? Well, because that flows from God. God is a God of encouragement. So on this Friday, as we go into this weekend and think about ways that we might find those who have fallen, who need that encouragement, I share with you this verse from Galatians 6:1 which says, “Dear brothers and sisters, if another believer is overcome by some sin, you who are godly should gently and humbly help that person back onto the right path, and be careful not to fall into the same temptation yourself.”

You know the whole idea here, scripturally, is that we would encourage those who have fallen, those who make mistakes, because we recognize that we ourselves are in need of that same encouragement and have indeed received that from Jesus, who saw us in our sins, in the moments of our failures, in falling down, and He came and picked us up and encouraged us with new life and a new opportunity to rise and walk again.

Prayer
Lord Jesus, we thank You so much for Your love for us. We thank You that You have not counted our sins against us, but instead You have forgiven us our sins. We thank You also for Your incredible patience with us, for as many times as we have learned the truth and the right way to go, for double those amount of times we have absolutely gone the wrong way and done the wrong thing.

But You are here with Your word and forgiveness to encourage us, and now You call us to do the same for others who are struggling and who have fallen. Would You change the whole temperature of our conversations to be that of encouragement? We know that the power of Your forgiveness is there for all who repent. And so, Lord, would you help us acknowledge not only our own sin, but walk with our brothers and sisters to come to You and to receive that forgiveness and be encouraged, and to walk on the path that You set before us.

We pray this in Jesus’ name. Amen.