In a crisis, the body's burst of adrenaline can boost the average person's physical abilities, so that a man is able to lift a car off a trapped bicyclist and a mother can fight off a polar bear threatening her son.
Author Mark Chanski makes the case that encouragement is able to do emotionally and psychologically for the soul what adrenaline does for the body. While Christians are sometimes reluctant to offer encouragement, we must do so in order to love our neighbors as ourselves. Building on the foundation of the gospel as the ultimate encouragement from God, the author--using quotations, historical references, illustrations, and examples--sets forth the Christian's obligation to offer encouragement and then shows us how we can be encouraging in our families, in our churches, and in the world.
Table of Contents:
1. The Exhilaration of Encouragement
2. The Obligation of Encouragement
3. Some Direct Expressions of Encouragement
4. Some Subtle Expressions of Encouragement
5. The Gospel as the Ultimate Encouragement
6. The Personal Disinclinations to Encouragement
7. The Social Discinclinations to Encouragement
8. The Marriage Implications of Encouragement
9. The Parenting Implications of Encouragement
10. The Church and Therapeutic Encouragement
11. The Church and Strategic Encouragement
12. The Companion of Encouragement
13. The Disposition of Encouragement
14. The Expansion of Encouragement
