Encouragement Box
One of the great characters found in the Bible is Barnabas. He doesn’t get a lot of fanfare because he’s overshadowed by his partner, the apostle Paul. Barnabas first shows up in the book of Acts 4:36 where it says, there was Joseph, the one the apostles nicknamed Barnabas, (which means “Son of Encouragement”). What a great nickname to have, “son of encouragement.”
The name says a lot about his character. After Saul’s radical conversion all the apostles were afraid of him and couldn’t believe he had become a believer. Barnabas went out of his way to bring Saul to the apostles and spoke well of him. When the church in Jerusalem saw that many gentiles were coming to faith they sent Barnabas as an ambassador to represent the church. Acts 11:24 says, Barnabas was a good man, full of the Holy Spirit and strong in faith. Let me just say that if like Barnabas we stay full of the Holy Spirit we might just become world class encouragers. Barnabas went to Tarsus to look for Saul and brought him to Antioch where they both ministered for over a year. Saul changed his name to Paul and he and Barnabas did a lot of traveling together completing their first missionary journey. As Barnabas and Paul made plans for their next journey they had an argument about bringing John Mark along.
John Mark was the cousin of Barnabas, and quite young. Barnabas wanted to take John Mark with them on their missionary journey but Paul said, “no way, he deserted us in Pamphylia.” Their disagreement was so sharp that they separated. Paul picked Silas to be his new ministry partner and Barnabas chose John Mark. They went their separate ways. Evidently Barnabas saw something in John Mark that Paul didn’t see. Much later on when Paul was an old man he acknowledged that John Mark was a good man and useful for ministry. This by the way is the same Mark who wrote the gospel account of Jesus. What I’m trying to establish in this brief history lesson is that Barnabas was a great encourager and we should strive to be like him.
In case you haven’t noticed things are not well with our country or our culture. People are stressed out and need something to help them cope. I believe every person who claims the name of Jesus should be an encourager. If it doesn’t come naturally to you, keep working on it. It’s like a smile but even better. It doesn’t cost you anything and it brings blessing and joy to the person receiving it.
What do you do when you need encouragement? I think if you asked ten people you might get ten different answers. Personally, I gravitate towards people who I think will be a source of encouragement to me. However, if I’m feeling particularly bad about myself, I go to my encouragement box. About 30 years ago I heard someone talking about their encouragement box. They went on to explain that when someone gave them an encouraging card, or note, or letter, or anything encouraging they would put it into their encouragement box. When they found themselves deeply discouraged they would go to their encouragement box and it would instantly perk them up. I thought what a great idea and so my encouragement box has 30 years worth of encouragement in it. It’s stuffed with birthday cards, letters, postcards, funny articles people have sent me, and much more. Every once in a while when things aren’t going well and I find myself next level discouraged, I go to my encouragement box. It doesn’t take long after opening the box before I find myself smiling and then even laughing. Today would be a good day to get an encouragement box. Even if you don’t get an encouragement box, be a Barnabas and keep on encouraging!
Stay close to Jesus,
Steve