“Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called ‘Today,’ so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” (Heb. 3:13) Not only is it important to verbally recognize the talents & gifts of others, it is important to encourage them, look for the good in others, help them to do amazing work, develop their own God-given gifts & talents. For many of us, when we are bravely stepping into our spiritual gifts that God has given us but we have been fearful of embracing, that little word of encouragement when you see God at work in us, a spark, the Holy Spirit working through us, a word of encouragement can help us to be bold & embrace that gift God has entrusted us with. Encouragement, even recognition of the talents & gifts of others sometimes re-enforces what God has revealed to us even when we are arguing with God about stepping into it. A collateral benefit of encouraging others is that we will be seen as a collaborative & a supportive person, someone easy to work with because we see & value the other person.
As Christians in entertainment we are to encourage other Christians in their spiritual walk with the Lord. But how do we encourage? One way effectively used by the Apostle Paul is to pay attention & openly acknowledge what others do that is right. His encouragement always came at the beginning of his letters. He would state that he was thanking the Lord for them, & prominently list their spiritual accomplishment. He would even tell them that others were talking about them in a positive light or their faith was being “spoken of throughout the world” Rom. 1:8. See also 1 Thess.1: 2-8, 2 Thess.1:4, Phil 1:3-6, 1 Tim 1:1, 1 Cor.1: 4-5. Look through the epistles for more encouragement at the beginning of each letter. Romans 1:12 indicates the purpose of his exhortation was for the encouragement of both parties, for their mutual faith. We can make ourselves available to the Holy Spirit by encouraging someone today, every day in an authentic way by being open to the leading of the Holy Spirit to lift someone up & by acknowledging them & what they are doing is good, right & allowing the Holy Spirit to work through them.