Encouragement // Encouraging yourself

Throughout this months theme of encouragement, we're going to look at encouraging others and encouraging other Christians, but what about encouraging yourself?

In Ephesians 6:10 Paul speaks about the armour of God.

'Finally, be strong in the Lord and in his mighty power. Put on the full armour of God, so that you can take your stand against the devil's schemes. For our struggle is not against flesh and blood, but against the rulers, against authorities, against the powers of this dark world and against the spiritual forces of evil in the heavenly realms. Therefore put of the full armour of God, so that when the day of evil comes, you may be able to stand your ground, and after you have done everything, to stand. Stand firm then, with the belt of truth buckled around your waist, with the breastplate of righteousness in place, and with your feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. In addition to all this, take up the shield of faith, with which you can extinguish all the flaming arrows of the evil one. Take the helmet of salvation and the sword of the Spirit, which is the word of God.'

But, what does this have to do with encouraging yourself?

Well, this armour is what we need to be solid in Christ and to be ready to face the world outside of Christianity.
There's the -

• Belt of truth 
• Breastplate of righteousness 
• Feet fitted with the readiness that comes from the gospel of peace 
• Shield of faith
• Helmet of salvation 
• Sword of the spirit 

So how do we get all this awesome sounding armour?! 

Read your Bible 

Pray 

Focus on others 

That's right! 3 steps. 

By reading our Bibles, we get to know God, his love and his life. We also begin to ingest scripture to take with us, giving us our sword of the spirit, helmet of salvation, shield of faith, belt of truth and our feet will be set with readiness that comes from the gospel of peace. 

By praying, we build on our relationship with God and we learn to lean on him and not our own understanding. 

Focusing on Jesus and helping others (being selfless) fulfils the commandments that Jesus left with us; To love and help others and to make disciples of others. 

Being selfless also gives us the breastplate of righteousness. 

So that's it! Read your Bible, Pray and focus on others - the key to encouraging yourself closer to Jesus.