Your encouragement becomes grace that is strengthening, enabling, and empowering for others. This is the ministry to which God calls you to. Encourage someone today.
SHAUNA: This is Shauna on Joni Eareckson Tada: Sharing Hope. Well, Joni I know you have a hope-filled word for us today and I can’t wait to hear it!
JONI: Well, Shauna, that word is from Ephesians 4:29. And in the new American Standard, it says, “Let no unwholesome word come out of your mouth, but if there is any good word for edification according to the need of the moment, say that, so that it will give grace to those who hear.” Now, this may be one of the most practical verses in the Bible. Because it’s so doable. Whether you are a new Christian or seasoned in the faith, Ephesians 4:29 is a wonderful way to, every day, not only glorify God, but build other people up. Give them help and hope, and even grace. And it’s simple, because before this day is done, an occasion will arise in your life that Ephesians 4 calls “the need of the moment.” And I just bet this is how it will happen.
Picture it like this: God has someone in mind that he wants to touch or encourage today. He has special grace available for this person. At the same time, God is looking for another person [that’s you] to serve as his conduit of his grace. So, what does he do next? Well, he crosses your paths. He puts the two of you together, casually chatting in a grocery checkout line, or on a golf course, at choir rehearsal, sitting at Starbucks, or in chemistry class, in the parking lot, or at the ATM booth. You have hope eternal. And this other person does not. You have answers; and the other person is looking for them. You have a smile, and that person needs one. Now, what happens next after that is up to you. You had before you a need of the moment. You also have God, who desires to give divine help. So, you can choose to sidestep the moment and thus miss the opportunity, or you can give “such a word as is good for edification that it may give grace to those who hear.”
You know, I have found myself in situations like I just described. The person usually doesn’t know me, I’m just a lady in a wheelchair sitting across from them at the food court. But I admire her sweater. And we start chatting. After a few minutes, my napkin falls to the floor. She gets up from her meal, picks up my napkin for me. And I say something like, “You know, the Bible describes you very well. It says in the book of Proverbs that he who is kind to the needy honors God. So, thank you for honoring the Lord by your kindness.” Now, that’s just two sentences. No more. But a good word was given and through it, God imparts grace. He has his eye on that lady in the food court, and he used me to plant the gospel seed.
So, every day you and I have a chance—many chances actually—to nudge people closer to the Lord. You may be one more stepping-stone in the many stones it’s going to take to bring that person to Christ. You have a chance to extend the magnificent grace of God through what you say and do. Your few sentences can be a pipeline, an aqueduct through which he keeps meeting the needs of the moment in the lives of others. Oh, what a thrill to be in partnership with the Lord Almighty in reaching those on whom he has placed his special designs. Ephesians 4:29 says so. Your encouragement becomes grace that is strengthening, enabling, and empowering for others. And this is the ministry to which God will call you today.
SHAUNA: So, friend, don’t miss it. Sometime before you lay your head on the pillow tonight, someone is going to be positioned to directly benefit from your words. Be on alert. And when the opportunity arises, don’t forget to speak that word of grace. God’s word of grace.
© Joni and Friends