Oct. 30, 2025
Build Up
What does it look like to truly build up those around us, especially when disagreements arise? In today's episode, host Lauren Alessi guides us through the call to unity found in 2 Corinthians 13:11, inviting us to reflect on how we can overcome division, encourage one another, and pursue harmony within our faith communities. Together, we’ll explore practical ways to strive for restoration, submit our thoughts to God’s word, and make encouragement a daily habit—even when it isn’t easy.
Let’s join our hearts in prayer and devotion, asking God to help us become a community marked by peace, unity, and unwavering support for one another.
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You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1389. Today's episode is called Build Up. Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time.
00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:42.710
That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Hello, everyone. My name is Lauren Alessi, and this whole month we've been talking about overcoming October, overcoming grief, overcoming division, overcoming just a lot of stuff.
00:00:42.948 --> 00:01:01.060
And this week we're talking about overcoming division and striving for unity. And we've talked about agreement in Christ, we've talked about guarding peace, living in harmony, and today we're talking about building up. So let's jump right in. The verse of the day is found in Second Corinthians
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11, and it says this finally, brothers and sisters, rejoice, strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. Have you noticed anything in common with all, almost all of the verses we've done so far? I think it's all of them. Yeah, it is all of them. It's all letters that Paul wrote to churches, and it's all letters that are saying, hey, strive for restoration, live in harmony with one another, make every effort to keep the unity of Christ. Brothers and sisters, in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, agree with one another in what you say. I think what we're seeing is that in church, in Christian settings, in a group of Christian people, I think just people in general, it is very, very easy to not have full restoration, to not have full agreement. It's very easy to have disagreement amongst people that you do life with every day. And sure, that can be at work, that can happen with family, but God calls us to be united as Christians. So your workplace, you're not really called to be united in your workplace. You are called to be united amongst your brothers and sisters in Christ. And so I think that's super important to point out how often that is reiterated. And this is just four out of five of the verses. It's actually tomorrow's verse two.
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But anyways, we're noticing how important that is in the Bible and in many other verses of the Bible, how Paul is constantly encouraging them, build up one another, strive for full restoration and agree with everything, because we have to be united as Christians, we, we can't be divided. We have to be in agreement. And I think that's just something we have to keep emphasizing and remembering. So again, it says here, rejoice, strive for full restoration, encourage one another, be of one mind, live in peace, and the God of love and peace will be with you. So I think we're seeing here one, build up one another, encourage one another. When's the last time you reached out to someone and just encouraged them for no reason? And in today's culture, it's like, I just, I like them, but, you know, I just disagree with what they said here, with what they said. Instead of, let me just text them and encourage them.
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Is it realistic that we're going to agree and love everything everyone does?
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No. But when's the last time you just encouraged somebody?
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I just want to say I came from a, a pastoral family. My parents are pastors, my brother's a pastor, my little sister's a youth minister. It is one of the toughest jobs because you get a lot of complaints and very little encouragements. When's the last time you, you emailed or texted or called your past, your pastors or your pastoral family, and you just encouraged them and you just thank them, hey, thank you so much for all you do.
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I'm not talking about leaving a YouTube comment, okay? That's two very different things.
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Which, if you do, that's awesome. That's beautiful. But personally, hey, thank you so much for all you do. We see it, we, we see the work you put in and, and we're very grateful. When's the last time you did that for somebody? Because it's so much easier to, to nitpick and, and to discourage someone. It's so much easier to sit in a corner and be like, I disagree. Like, that's 10 times easier than to say, let me just really pour into this person and encourage them. So strive for full restoration.
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Encourage one another. Be of one mind.
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Be of one mind. That's crazy because it does. It can seem impossible. It, it's so easy to think differently. It's so easy to disagree. But here the Bible tells us, be of one mind. You know when that happens? When we submit our thoughts, when we submit our opinions to the word of God and finally live in peace.
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So it sounds like when we strive for full restoration, when we encourage one another, build each other up, when we submit our thoughts and we are of one mind under the word of God, then we can live in peace.
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And the God of love and peace will be with you. And that's my prayer. That's honestly all I want. I just want the God of love and peace to be with me. I don't have to agree with everybody. I don't want to live in division. I want to live in unity. And you know what? I want the God of love and peace to be with me. And if that's you, I pray that you join me in this prayer. Dear Lord, help me strive for full restoration. God, in my church, in my Christian community, in my my friends, in my family. Help me not get just stagnant for what I have, but help me strive for full restoration. God. Help me to build up the people around me and encourage them and not just settle for for what I have, but to encourage people and not to so easily cause division, not to so easily cause disagreement, but to encourage the people around me. Lord, help me be of one mind with the people around me. Lord, help us be of one mind with the people around us. God, help us to submit our thoughts to you and to the word of God, Lord, so we could be of one mind and ultimately live in peace. And Lord, may you, the God of love and peace be with us all. In Jesus name we pray.
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Amen. So there you have it. Your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend, leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.
00:00:00.080 --> 00:00:21.280
You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1389. Today's episode is called Build Up. Hey there. We're the Alessies, a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time.
00:00:21.600 --> 00:00:42.710
That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional Podcast. Hello, everyone. My name is Lauren Alessi, and this whole month we've been talking about overcoming October, overcoming grief, overcoming division, overcoming just a lot of stuff.
00:00:42.948 --> 00:01:01.060
And this week we're talking about overcoming division and striving for unity. And we've talked about agreement in Christ, we've talked about guarding peace, living in harmony, and today we're talking about building up. So let's jump right in. The verse of the day is found in Second Corinthians
00:01:01.140 --> 00:02:32.120
00:02:33.159 --> 00:03:32.219
00:03:33.030 --> 00:03:36.870
00:03:37.110 --> 00:03:40.389
00:03:41.189 --> 00:04:10.419
00:04:10.419 --> 00:04:14.218
00:04:14.218 --> 00:04:43.079
00:04:43.560 --> 00:04:46.839
00:04:48.040 --> 00:05:06.009
00:05:06.970 --> 00:05:17.850
00:05:18.980 --> 00:06:27.860
00:06:28.180 --> 00:06:50.509