Wednesday’s 333 Devotional: “A Call To Encourage”

An encourager is a person who accepts people as they are, letting the past be the past, and will help someone get to where God needs for them to be.

Barnabas was such an encourager.

“And when Saul had come to Jerusalem, he tried to join the disciples; but they were all afraid of him, and did not believe that he was a disciple. But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles.” (Acts 9:26-27)

Saul, who later became known as Paul, was a persecutor of the church, but while going to Damascus to arrest Christians he had a dramatic encounter with Jesus Christ. From this experience, Paul became a committed believer and promoter of the gospel.

But Paul needed an encourager, one who would come alongside and accept him. But no one came. They distrusted him because he was the one responsible for ravaging the church.

But Barnabas, whose name means son of encouragement, trusted Paul and took him before the apostles and even spoke on his behalf. It was through this act of encouragement that Paul, the one who would become one of the greatest evangelists of all times and author of many of the New Testament letters, was accepted by the church.

Encouragers are people who accept others as they are. They let the past be just that, the past. They help people get too where they need to be. Encouragers realize that everyone is a sinner, and in Christ they are new creations, so there is no blame or shame. Encouragers realize there is always a new and fresh start.

Paul knew the value of such an encourager, and so he wrote to the church in Thessalonica saying,“Therefore encourage one another and build each other up.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11)

Consider if there were no Barnabas then there may have been no Paul. So, the question we need to ask, “Is there a Paul or Paulette we need to be a Barnabas to?”