Imagine being such a consummate and consistent encourager that others recognize it and call you “Mr. Encouragement.” That was the name given to a first-century Christian named “Joseph, a Levite from Cyprus, whom the apostles called Barnabas (which means ‘son of encouragement’)” (Acts 4:36). And he lived up to it.
The first time we see Barnabas mentioned in scripture is early in the history of the church. He encourages the entire church of Jerusalem in a tangible, practical way through a timely act of radical generosity (Acts 4:37).
The second time Barnabas appears in Acts, he extends himself to help an unknown, zealous young preacher named Saul. The man later called Paul had been a fierce persecutor of the church but was miraculously converted to Christianity—and now wanted to join the disciples in Jerusalem. But because of Saul’s reputation, the apostles were skeptical of his motives for wanting to see them. Barnabas believed in Saul when no one else did. He personally took Saul to meet the apostles and strongly endorsed him (Acts 9:26–27).
Next Barnabas was called to help establish the new church in Antioch. The ministry was flourishing and he needed help. So he went out of his way to get Saul to aid him with the teaching (Acts 11:22–26). He gave Saul an opportunity he would not otherwise have had.
The fourth time Barnabas is mentioned, he and Saul are listed among the leaders of the church in Antioch. Interestingly, he is listed first, Saul last. The next thing we know, they are called out as church-planting missionaries. By the end of the chapter, Saul is being called Paul and is listed first, indicating leadership (Acts 13:42). Barnabas was willing to stand aside and give Paul a chance to lead.
Barnabas’s belief in Saul paid off.
Humanly speaking, the great apostle Paul would not have gotten far in his role as a missionary, church planter, author, and leading light of Christianity if not for Barnabas. Never underestimate the power of timely encouragement!
Sometime later, as the two men were preparing for another missionary journey, Barnabas did it again. Previously, he and Paul had taken a young man named John Mark with them on their missionary journey. But for some reason Mark had bailed out, leaving early. In Paul’s zealous mind, Mark had blown it beyond repair. So this time, as they got ready to go, Paul did not want to take Mark along (Acts 15:36–38).
But Barnabas saw things differently. He looked at Mark through the eyes of an encourager. So he gave Mark a second chance, taking him along though that meant Barnabas and Paul went separate ways (Acts 15:39).
Barnabas’s belief in Mark paid off.
Instead of becoming a castoff, Mark eventually regained Paul’s favor (Colossians 4:10; 2 Timothy 4:11; Philemon 24). Mark also accompanied Peter at one time (1 Peter 5:13). Ultimately, Mark wrote the Gospel of Mark. Never underestimate the power of timely encouragement!
The word encouragement speaks of coming alongside others and giving them courage. Life can be a fearful thing. Everyone needs someone drawing alongside, saying, “You can do it. Don’t quit.” Everyone needs someone who believes in them. Everyone needs encouragement.
Secret #8
Encourage others.
For the Greeks, the heart was the center of a person’s inner life, the source of all forces and functions of the inner being. To be discouraged was to “lose heart; to have the very core of your being cut out.” Encouragement, therefore, means to “put the heart back” or “put the courage back” into someone.
Encouragement is not something we can offer others from a safe distance. The word rendered as encourage most often in the New Testament is a compound word combining the word for “call out or invite” and the word for “alongside of.” It speaks of helping restore a failing heart, rekindle a burnt-out heart; and heal a broken heart.
The word encourage is used 109 times in the Bible and has various shades of meaning. A full-blown definition of the biblical notion of encouragement would go something like this:
Encouragement: to come alongside someone in order to comfort, console, cheer up, cheer on, counsel, call out, challenge, exhort, entreat, strengthen, teach, instruct, admonish, warn, urge, appeal, beg, or beseech.
Encouraging others is a command to be obeyed, a ministry to be practiced, and a lifestyle to be lived. It is essential for building relationships.
If any group of people needed encouragement, the first-century Jewish Christians did. Persecution was fierce. Their property was plundered. Many were being mistreated, some thrown in prison (Hebrews 10:32–34; 13:3). Hated by their fellow Jews and oppressed by pagans, they lived as virtual fugitives.
An encourager wrote them a letter that is now contained in the Bible—the book of Hebrews. (Some scholars believe the author was none other than … Barnabas). Whoever wrote the letter was a master encourager. Twelve times he encourages the Hebrew Christians to band together and challenge each other to higher living, even despite their suffering (see Hebrews 4:1, 11–16; 6:1; 10:22–24; 12:1, 28; 13:13–15).
To illustrate the importance of a mutual ministry of encouragement, I selected several translations of the same passage—Hebrews 10:24–25. As you read the different versions, note the variety of ways we are to encourage one other. Note also that this many-sided, mutual ministry of encouragement is to be an ongoing, continual lifestyle.
Let’s see how inventive we can be in encouraging love and helping out, not avoiding worshiping together as some do but spurring each other on,
especially as we see the big Day approaching.
HEBREWS 10:24–25 MSG
And let us consider and give attentive, continuous care to watching over one another, studying how we may stir up (stimulate and incite) to love and helpful deeds and noble activities, Not forsaking or neglecting to assemble together [as believers], as is the habit of some people, but admonishing (warning, urging, and encouraging) one another, and all the more faithfully as you see the day approaching.
HEBREWS 10:24–25 AMP
Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
HEBREWS 10:24–25 NLT
We should keep on encouraging each other to be thoughtful and to do helpful things. Some people have gotten out of the habit of meeting for worship, but we must not do that. We should keep on encouraging each other, especially since you know that the day of the Lord’s coming is getting closer.
HEBREWS 10:24–25 CEV
Barnabas passed on his passion for encouragement to the apostle Paul, his top student. Paul then commanded his followers to practice the art of encouragement.
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.
2 CORINTHIANS 13:11
Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:11
And we urge you, brothers and sisters, warn those who are idle and disruptive, encourage the disheartened, help the weak, be patient with everyone.
1 THESSALONIANS 5:14
Paul did not merely instruct others to be people of encouragement, he lived it. For example, when Paul and Barnabas visited the Macedonian city of Lystra to plant a church, opposition there was so severe that a mob stoned Paul to the point of death. Paul knew this persecution would have scared the fledgling church at Lystra, so he used his own willingness to suffer for Christ to challenge, strengthen, and encourage the new converts.
After proclaiming the Message in Derbe and establishing a strong core of disciples, they retraced their steps to Lystra, then Iconium, and then Antioch, putting muscle and sinew in the lives of the disciples, urging them to stick with what they had begun to believe and not quit,
making it clear to them that it wouldn’t be easy: “Anyone signing up for the kingdom of God has to go through plenty of hard times.”
ACTS 14:21–22 MSG
Later Paul and his missionary partner Silas visited the city of Philippi in order to start a church. This time they ended up in prison for their faith. As you may recall, God sent a small earthquake that opened the prison doors and led both to the conversion of the jailer and to Paul and Silas’s release. Note what happened next.
So [Paul and Silas] left the prison and went to Lydia’s house; and when they had seen the brethren, they warned and urged and consoled and encouraged them and departed.
ACTS 16:40 AMP
Later, after Paul started a church in Ephesus, a riot erupted over his ministry. Again the church would have been spooked by the persecution Paul faced. Note what he did next.
After the uproar had ceased, Paul sent for the disciples and warned and consoled and urged and encouraged them; then he embraced them and told them farewell and set forth on his journey to Macedonia.
ACTS 20:1 AMP
God may have allowed you to experience some dark days and tough times. How might you use what you have experienced to challenge others to greater faith, higher hope, and deeper love?
Author Donald Miller attributes his eventual success as a writer to the encouragement he received in middle school from David Gentiles, his church’s youth pastor. At the time, Miller was a mixed up young man who had both shoplifted and broken into people’s homes. Having grown up without a father, he mistrusted and rebelled against men in authority.
But all that changed when David Gentiles came along. A Louisiana Cajun who stood only five foot five, Gentiles had an impact well beyond his physical stature. According to Miller, Gentiles “taught me more about Jesus than anybody I knew…. Being friends with David was an uneven deal. You could not love him like he loved you.”1
Gentiles had a knack for seeing potential in people and encouraging them to reach it. He convinced Miller to start writing and peppered him with positive feedback. Miller later said, “Nobody [had ever] said I was good at anything. This was the first time tasting that. It was like water for thirst.”2
Former school teacher Florence Littauer has become a legendary motivational speaker and best-selling author of more than twenty books.
Unfortunately, her father’s dream of becoming a writer himself never came to fruition.
Littauer tells of how she discovered her father’s secret ambition when she came home for Christmas vacation during her senior year of college. When she and her father were alone, he pulled her aside into the little family den, reached behind the old upright piano, and pulled out a battered cigar box. Opening it, he showed her a pile of newspaper articles.
“These are articles I have written and some letters to the editor that have been published,” he said.
Florence was shocked. “Why didn’t you tell me you could write?” she asked.
“Because I didn’t want your mother to know,” he said. “She’s always told me that since I didn’t have much education I shouldn’t try to write. I wanted to run for some political office also, but she told me I shouldn’t try.”
“I figured I could write without her knowing it,” he continued. “When each item would be printed, I’d cut it out and hide it in this box.”
The next day Florence’s parents got on a bus to take a brief, yet much needed, vacation from their family store. That night she looked out the window and saw her mother get off the bus—alone. “Where’s Dad?” Florence asked. “Your father’s dead.”
He had died at the Boston bus station earlier in the day. Years later, Florence looked back.
“Father left me no money, but he left me the box. He had little education and no degrees, but he gave me and my brothers a love for the English language, a thirst for politics, and an ability to write. Who knows what Father could have done with just a little encouragement?”3
Encouragement is one of the most powerful relationship builders we can practice. Everyone loves an encourager I was a very shy high school student. Yet my youth pastor, Lee Simmons, kept encouraging and pushing me to get out of my comfort zone and minister. He “made” me share a testimony before the youth group, he “begged” me to be in the youth choir, he “twisted my arm” to give the devotional at a large youth gathering.
He believed in me when no one else did. Humanly speaking, I would not be in ministry today without Lee’s encouragement.
When I was a college student, I sensed God calling me to plant a church. Dr. Elmer Towns was one of the few people who expressed belief in my ability to plant a successful church. That was a giant encouragement I desperately needed. Since then I have trained hundreds of church planters. I probably would not have become a church planter had it not been for Dr. Towns’s encouragement. Everyone needs someone to believe in them.
Let me encourage you to … become a master encourager. It does not require talent or skill, just a positive attitude and a willing heart. I believe you can do it. Allow me to give you a few suggestions to get you started:
• Ask God to guide you into the best way to encourage each person in your life.
• Encourage others by believing in them.
• Set people up for success, not failure.
• Tell people when they are doing a good job.
• Point out everything others do right.
• Encourage others by helping them with some part of the process.
• Speak highly of other people in front of others.
Notes
1. Information for this story adapted from John Blake, “Born-again Rebel Don Miller Reveals ‘Best Sermon I Ever Heard,’” CNN.com, July 19, 2010, 3–4; http://articles.cnn.com/2010-07-19/living/Miller.jazz_1_donald-
miller-evangelicals-miller-appeals?_s=PM:LIVING.
2. Ibid., 4.
3. Adapted from Florence Littauer, Silver Boxes: The Gift of Encouragement (Dallas: Word, 1989), 124–128.