BEING AN ENCOURAGER

I’ve been reading these days about a guy named Barnabas.  He really was a good guy with so many qualities we could all aspire to have – the most famous of which is encouragement. 

Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and faith. When he went to Antioch and saw how God had blessed the believers there, he was very happy. He encouraged them all, saying, “Always be faithful to the Lord. Serve him with all your heart.” Many more people became followers of the Lord.

Acts 11:23-24

There are a number of stories about Barnabas that shows that being an encourager was his character – in fact his name even means “son of encouragement.”

I’m grateful for people in my life over the years who have encouraged me.  I was going to name some of them but there really are too many. God knows who they are and I pray to follow their example. 

Thank you God for people in our lives who encourage us.  Some of them do it by what they notice and say; others by simply doing what they do with skill and grace. 

So encourage each other and help each other grow stronger in faith, just as you are already doing.

1 Thessalonians 5:11

We need encouragers in our lives because it’s not always easy to continue to do those things that need to be done.  Help us Lord to reach out to others in our family, our church, our community and with respect and helpfulness be good neighbours to one another.

Give us eyes to see and ears to hear the good that’s going on.  The airwaves are full of bad news stories of angry people and unjust actions.  Political rhetoric is so harsh and demeaning and is so hard to listen to sometimes. 

We pray Loving God, to be examples of something different in the middle of this broken and hurting world during this difficult time.  May what we say, how we say it, what we do and how we do it encourage others to be better and do better than they could on their own.  Amen

As Paul told his young protégé Timothy so we want to follow this advice today:

Be ready at all times to do whatever is needed. Tell people what they need to do, tell them when they are doing wrong, and encourage them. Do this with great patience and careful teaching.

2 Timothy 4:2