Friend of Fools

“And when Elizabeth heard the greeting of Mary, the baby leaped in her womb. And Elizabeth was filled with the Holy Spirit, and she exclaimed with a loud cry, “Blessed are you among women, and blessed is the fruit of your womb!” (Luke 1:41-2).

How do we encourage someone who’s under a great call from God? When a family member, a friend, a stranger comes to us who is trying to obey a difficult call from God, how do we respond?

We’ve been discussing what our attitude and character looks like when God gives us a task that no one else understands, but what about when God gives someone else a mission that’s difficult for us to understand? When we are on the opposite end of the spectrum and someone is looking like a fool for the sake of Jesus, it can be hard to stand in their corner and root for them.
As soon as you do, everyone else might give you the same judgmental looks and the same disgruntled speeches about how you shouldn’t support such an outlandish idea.
Many people fail in their mission because their mission is to encourage another person during theirs. Never underestimate the power of an encouraging word.

When Mary comes to Elizabeth, she has probably already begun experiencing the disapproval and condemnation from those around her, but as she walks through the door of Elizabeth’s house, Elizabeth feels the Holy Spirit and knows that her cousin is under a great anointing from God. She calls Mary blessed and encourages her rather than showing skepticism.

When someone is under the anointing of God to do something, let us be like Elizabeth who extended her hand in love and believed in the power of God even when she didn’t fully understand His plan.

Our fellow members in the body of Christ need our encouragement—they need to know that they aren’t alone in their battles. This is a dark world to walk through alone, and no one who’s on a mission from God should feel that they walk alone. Let us be the lights in the darkness for them. Let’s be the ones who they find rest and revival in. Let’s be the ones who are willing to look just as crazy as they do because one day, the Lord will bring the mission full circle, and imagine the joy that we’ll have knowing that we stood by our brother or sister in faith and refused to let them walk their road alone.