The Power of Encouragement

One of my heroes is Eliud Kipchoge. On 13 October last year, he ran a marathon in under 2 hours. It’s ridiculous. Imagine running 100 metres in 17 seconds and then repeating it 421 times. He’d attempted the same feat before around a remote racing circuit in Italy with shallow corners so he didn’t have to slow down. His second attempt was on a course with slower corners. This time, however, it was in central Vienna and packed with cheering crowds. I wonder how many seconds he saved by being spurred on by others.

Barnabas is one of the Bible’s great encouragers (his name even means “Son of Encouragement”). He arrived in Antioch to encourage the church to stay true to the faith (Acts 11:24) and while he was there a great number came to faith and large numbers were equipped. I wonder how much of this growth came because of an environment of encouragement?

As we move on through Acts, encouragement becomes so important that the apostles kept visiting churches that had been established to strengthen and encourage. It gets mentioned again and again and is again associated with a church strong in the faith and growing in numbers (Acts 16:5).

Encouragers are critical to healthy churches. They’re like the crowds that come alongside tiring runners and spur them on to take the next step.

I realise that encouragement is a spiritual gift (Romans 12:8) but I don’t think that lets the rest of us off. I don’t get to be passive simply because it’s not my gift. Rather, we’re to look to those who are great encouragers and learn from them. Imagine the environment we’d create in our church if each of us made time to encourage one person every day. I bet that’s the sort of church my friends would want to be a part of. Maybe that’s why encouragement and growth come together.

So today my encouragement to you is simply this… Who can you encourage today?

Much love,
Simon

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