Paul's Encourager

2 Corinthians is loaded with scriptures which point to Titus as one who greatly encouraged Paul. Of course we know that Paul appointed him as a Pastor, sent him on journey's, considered him a Brother as well as a Spiritual Son and wrote a letter to him which is now an important Pastoral Epistle. One of these scriptures recently hit me square between the eyes.

2 Corinthians 2:12-13 (NIV)
"12 Now when I went to Troas to preach the gospel of Christ and found that the Lord had opened a door for me, 13 I still had no peace of mind, because I did not find my brother Titus there. So I said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia."

It is obvious that Paul was in need of encouragement and he intended to receive it from Titus. It seems he was expecting to find Titus in Troas. I don't know what was going in in Paul's life that he would be this desperate for encouragement from a specific guy, but I do know that I can relate. There have been times that I needed to seek out a particular individual that I knew was "the one" to encourage me. I have even taken a flight to get to a specific person in my time of need. Paul needed, as the scripture reveals, "peace of mind."

He then gives us an incredible insight. Even though God had opened a door for powerful and effective, needed ministry for him in Troas, he said goodbye to them and went on to Macedonia. Amazing! Paul left a place where God had opened a door. Now we could split hairs about the difference between an "open door" and being "called" to a place, but let us remember that there are no accidents in God. Paul showed up in Troas because God led him there. Maybe he was able to accomplish his task quickly and was released to move on, but the bottom line is that he moved on for the purpose of finding Titus so that he could gain "peace of mind" through Titus's ministry of encouragement to him.

What an amazing example that Paul set's for us that when we need to be refreshed, that we had better do whatever it takes to get to a refresher. And what an awesome example of an encourager that Titus is to us. I wish I could get with him now! He must have been an amazing man of God!

I could teach a 12 part series here but I won't. If this topic grabs your attention, get your concordance out and go for it. Look for the name Titus. You will be amazed at the wealth of insight about what it means to be an great encourager you will find as Paul describes his relationship with Titus in the scriptures.

But I do want to say one thing which will be my main and ending point. Believers all have the same Spirit inside of us and we are all anointed of the Lord. The potential is there for us to be amazing encourager's one to another. But very few really are.

You could be so empowered by God, so filled with His word to the brim that your face literally glows and miracles flow from your hands. But if you enter a room with a frown on your face or with your spirit in a bad place (you could say with a wrong attitude), you WILL drag everyone in that room down into your pit with you. You must choose to overcome your emotions, circumstances and difficulties. You must choose to rise up and encourage someone else in spite of the way you feel. You must choose to smile, touch, be excited and faith filled. But it has to be genuine. You must lay your burdens at the feet of Jesus before you can encourage someone else. But if you will get your attitude right and will work with the Holy Spirit who the Bible declares works mightily within you, maybe you will become the kind of encourager Titus was to Paul. Just maybe, we don't have many like Paul today because we don't have many like Titus today.?.? Let's change that starting with ourselves!