We’ve all been there where we feel so empty we could use the encouragement to press on yet it doesn’t seem to come. Let’s troubleshoot this “miserly” harvest and find out what’s going on in the vineyard.
We know the scriptural principle that what you sow, you reap. Often, what we need multiplied, we need to sow into others. So, where’s the encouragement when I need it? The first question we should ask ourselves and ask the Holy Spirit to reveal in us is if we have made an effort to sow encouragement into others for His glory. Not just any encouragement either, I mean biblical encouragement.
This next set of troubleshooting questions might sting. If you can brave them, then you may no longer be saying “where’s the encouragement when I need it”. Are you listening to the Father, Son, or Holy Spirit? Here’s what I’m asking by asking that. Are you willing to not just hear God but also listen and obey what the Father says both by His Spirit and His Word? This may easily be solved by learning to hear God’s voice and discerning it from all the chatter with His Word in hand. He will always encourage you as He leads and guides you. He will also lead you to sow what He gives you.
See, being in the Word of God, The Holy Bible, it’s hard not to be encouraged by a faithful God proving His nature to unfaithful mankind. David even encouraged himself in the Lord! He took heart that the Faithful One was on his side and even should David mess up, God won’t!
Also, learning to hear His voice is heavily dependent on discerning it from the noise and abiding in Him. That means not only knowing His word but knowing Him as the God of the Word. He is the same God that opened Sarah’s womb, who raised Lazarus from the dead, who created all of creation and time itself. I remember a certain battle where the sun stood still for Joshua (Joshua 10:13). Knowing His nature, it is easy to encourage ourselves through remembering who He has been before.
Finally, we can only give what we have. Are we filling our tanks by abiding in the life-giving vine, by reading the word, and by walking with Him? We can’t encourage people to trust a God we don’t know or to trust the power of God to manifest if we don’t believe it. If we aren’t being encouraged by Him, aren’t in the Word, and aren’t actively abiding in Him obeying and sowing what He has given us, then we set ourselves up for a miserly harvest.