I wanted to be a cheerleader when I was young. I tried out once and did not make the squad. Then I contracted rheumatic fever, which led to a heart murmur, and that ended all my hopes of ever being on the sidelines cheering. When I was allowed to go back to school, I determined that I would be the biggest fan and yell as loud as I could from the stands. (I can yell loud, as many know!)
God has a sense of humor.
When I was in my late forties, He gave me an opportunity to be a cheerleader sponsor at our high school. That was an eye-opening experience and held many fun but challenging rewards.
My greatest surprise was that my cheerleaders often had an attitude of not wanting to cheer. I had to become the cheerleader to get them ready to go out and cheer on the fans. I was forced to set rules about how often they had to start a cheer. I had to make sure they were calling the right cheers for the game and not doing a defense cheer when we had the ball. The most important rule was that they kept a smile on their face and portrayed their love of the team.
I realized that I could be a cheerleader for Jesus. No, I do not carry pom-poms and a megaphone to services, but I do work to use the rules I set for my squad. I smile at people and try to show forth the love of Jesus to all my brothers and sisters.
In Hebrews 10:24, Paul encourages us to be one another’s cheerleaders when he says,
“Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works” (NLT).
Christianity is not a faith that God intended to be lived out alone. Encouraging others and being encouraged by others are both central to the life of an obedient believer.
En-courage-ment is giving courage and strength to others for the intimidating task before them.
We cast a bigger vision for why their obedience matters for God’s kingdom. We affirm that their obedience glorifies God and counts in eternity.
The motivation for encouragement is LOVE. Love abounds in God’s people when we are open to opportunities to encourage one another.
After all, we are continually encouraged through the Holy Spirit as we dig into what God has written to us through the Bible. As the children of God, we have a responsibility to pass on encouragement.
Hebrews 3:13 reads,
“But ENCOURAGE one another day after day.”
Sometimes encouragement does not require words. How much do you smile when you are out in public? I try to make eye contact and smile. Sometimes that is hard if I am concentrating on my next purchase, especially in the grocery store.
Now, my husband is a talker. He smiles and talks to almost everyone he meets. Sometimes those people do not even have to be looking at him. But I have seen him brighten a stranger’s day many times over. On occasion, he does not use many words. He may reach for something too high for a shopper. He opens doors, puts packages in trunks, and looks for ways to show kindness to others. He always says that the Lord had him there just to be able to help them out. Most people respond back with how glad he has made their day.
We have both lived through some very dark days when mourning for the loss of our two oldest children, and we decided to daily pray Psalm 51:12,
“Restore to me the joy of Your salvation and grant me a willing spirit, to sustain me” (NIV).
We asked for God’s grace in helping us sustain joy in the midst of this challenging season. We also prayed Proverbs 17:22,
“A cheerful heart is good medicine, but a crushed spirit dries up the bones,” asking God to rekindle cheer in our heart.”
God showed us that our struggles were not with flesh and blood but with the spiritual thief who wanted to steal our joy. We learned that we had to purposely choose perseverance when we wanted to quit and choose a heart full of cheer during difficult times.
Most of all, we learned that we have to choose to keep our eyes focused on Jesus when the trials of life begin to distort our spiritual vision.
We are not capable of doing any of these things on our own, but only by relying fully on Jesus and allowing His supernatural power to abide within us. God could have changed our circumstances at any time, but His desire was to change our hearts during the circumstances.
Jesus was our coach, and we once again became His “cheer” leaders. To me, cheerleaders make games more exciting. They offer enthusiastic encouragement to the players and have a way of sensing when their teams need an emotional lift. Cheerleaders also communicate with the fans and help keep the positive energy flowing in support of the team. The best cheerleaders cheer most fervently during the most pivotal moments of the game, when the outcome is in doubt, or when the team is really struggling.
I encourage you to take these thoughts to heart and make someone’s day by a word or act of encouragement. We are on this faith journey together.
We can help each other keep our eyes on Jesus. We can trust there is still joy ahead of us. We can, most of all and more than ever before, choose to cheer each other on. Today let us thank God for all the cheerleaders in our lives. Also, let us ask ourselves: For whom might I become a cheerleader?
Thank you, Jesus, for being our Encouraging God. Thank you for all the ways you remind us of Your love for us and encourage us to use our gifts in the game of life. Help us to smile more and show Your love to all.
Amen.
Rebekah Marsh
Lean into Jesus Ministries
#rebekahmarshblogs