I love gathering in small groups to pray and share with one another. I am somewhat of an introvert, so the small group setting is more comfortable for me than a larger group. I love my small groups and I always look forward to gathering together.

I heard the Lord speak these words to me recently about when we gather together “be encouraged not discouraged”.

It got me thinking about the structure of small group meetings. So often when we meet in accountability settings we mainly focus on our failings, our down falls and the areas we feel that we need the most improvement. Our list of prayer points usually revolve around the things we need – more grace, more wisdom, more courage, more patience for we feel that we do not posses them.

What if instead we focused on all the good things that are going on in us instead of all the negative things?

Imagine if when we gathered in our small groups we shared with one another all the wonderful things we were doing, seeing and experiencing, What if we left out all the negatives and just focused on the positive things?

We already know our bad points, our misgivings and our areas of failure and we can focus on them without a second thought but we often forget about all the wonderful stuff that is going on in us.

Let us be encouraged and not discouraged. We need to change the way we think.

Let us be a people that live for the positive. Lets encourage and build one another up. When we share with one another the first thing that comes off our lips are the positive things that are going on in us and not our areas of failings.

When we pray for each other we begin by thanking God for all the amazing things He is doing for us and in us, we inject courage and hope into one another and we leave that prayer meeting feeling uplifted, and that we can do anything, instead of feeling so low and heavy about the things we are not doing.

When we begin to focus on the positive we will actually see that we do have grace, wisdom, courage and patience they were just hiding among all our negative thoughts about ourselves. And this time when we are praying for more of these things it is with a sense of “yes Lord I want more” and not “oh Lord please help me for I am failing here”.

Lord please help us to have the mindset of be encouraged and not be discouraged. Help us to change the way we think and to change the way we have always done things. Help us to be a people who empower one another with words of hope and life. To see that you are moving and working in us and through us and to focus on these things and be encouraged. Amen.