Encouragement Received = God's Grace

Encouragement Received = God’s Grace

You struggle, you adhere, and you look for the best; always seeking a word of praise to the sound of silence.  For people of success in their chosen art a moment of rejection or a slight nod of approval won’t upset them.  But what about the new artists;  writers, singers, or prachers, who prepare and practice their wares and see an emptiness in the existence of ignorance from the closest of their companions.

Do we ever consider the encouragement we receive from God every time we try living our life as upright children of God, and fail in spite of our faith?  God does turn away because of our weakness, or never allows us another opportunity to get up and try again.  Instead, he enhances or gives us that grace of blinding the failure and replaces that with an encouraging gesture of hope by saying; “get up and go at it again.”  

Take St. Peter as he promised Jesus he would stand behind him even if his life is threatened.  What did Jesus tell Peter?  “Amen, I say to you, this very night before the cock crows, you will deny me three times.”  (Mt 26: 34).  I do not know this man.  And immediately a cock crowed.    Peter went out and began to weep bitterly.  (Mt 26: 75).  

While on the Sea of Tiberius, and after they had finished breakfast, Jesus said to Simon Peter, “Simon, son of John, do you love me more than these?”  Three times he asked Peter and three times Peter responded with, “You know I love you!” (Jn 21: 15 ff).   Jesus forgot Peter’s denial and encouraged him to take over the leading of His Church.

Encouragement can become a hidden type of acknowledging others’ that many people seem to hold back for fear of over-stimulating another and giving them a big head when they think they don’t deserve it.  Or, as I had heard when I began writing, there are already a lot of people writing and what do you think; yours are going to make a difference?  The most devastating comment to someone just starting to exercise their talents is to create a negative attitude that plants a seed of weeds in a garden of possible beauty for others to see or hear.  

Perhaps there are numerous would-be writers, singers, or preachers that never went any further  than attempting to create and listening to someone who planted discouragement in their hearts.  Who knows what new article, song like the Sound of Music, or a homily that could move thousands to do God’s will; that never had a chance?       

Recognizing the grace we receive from God is not too difficult if we realize that he is always eager to bless us in a continual manner.  Why?  Because he did not create us to become workers like slaves to please himself or to stand and ask what now do you want us to perform as a subservient to him?  There is only one reason for our creation;  God’s love is without reason except to share his divinity with man.  To qualify this statement one needs only to hear the words from the mouth of Jesus Christ, the Son of God and one of the Holy Trinity:  “I pray not only for them, but for those who will believe in me through their word, so that they may all be one, as you Father, are in me and I in you, that they also may be in us, that the world may believe that you sent me. And I have given them the glory you gave me, so that they may be one, as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may be brought to perfection as one.”  (Jn 18: 20 -23).

This is not only truth from God himself, it is an encouragement that could never be exceeded.  It is the one example of how we must consider the feelings and desires for a novice to reach out with their talents and the grace God shares with them to excel in whatever the strength of their abilities will allow them.    

Ralph B. Hathaway