Encouragement Is a Community Project
Encouragement is not the task of a few leaders or mature believers; it is a community project.
“When they had preached the gospel to that city and had made many disciples, they returned to Lystra and to Iconium and to Antioch, strengthening the souls of the disciples, encouraging them to continue in the faith, and saying that through many tribulations we must enter the kingdom of God. And when they had appointed elders for them in every church, with prayer and fasting they committed them to the Lord in whom they had believed” (Acts 14:21-23).
Encouragement is not the task of a few leaders or mature believers; it is a community project. After strengthening and encouraging the disciples in various cities, Paul and Barnabas appointed elders in every new church, ensuring that the encouragement would continue long after they left. They saw the church as an incubator for gospel encouragement, where every believer plays a part in the mutual building up of one another. It is through ongoing encouragement that believers are built up, fortified to withstand the trials of life, and motivated to keep pressing on.
Here are two simple but powerful forms of encouragement: being present and pointing to Jesus. First, we can encourage others through our presence. When Paul was stoned and left for dead (Acts 14:20), the disciples gathered around him, ministered to his wounds, and encouraged him to rise up. Likewise, our presence in each other’s lives can be a powerful encouragement. By simply showing up, we tell each other, “You are not walking this path alone.”
Second, we encourage one another by pointing each other to Jesus. The reminder that Christ is with us in our troubles, that he suffered and died for us, and that He is not wasting our lives will give us strong resolve in the face of trouble. When we point each other to the cross and the empty tomb, we remind each other that our hope is not in this life but in the faithful Savior who holds our future secure.
Encouragement is a vital part of the Christian life, and it’s a project we are all called to participate in for the glory of God and the good of the saints!