52 Men of the Bible - The StudiesSample

# 48\. Barnabas ## Explore You have probably come across Barnabas before and his incredible heart of encouragement, he stands out in the Bible as a bloke who did see the best in people and encouraged. Barnabas might also make you feel like a complete disaster when it comes to encouraging others, but there is a load of positive stuff for us here. Idea 1: Encouraging with Words Let’s look at this one first, you don’t need me to tell you that the power we have in our words is just incredible. Sadly, you don’t need to look far now on social media to find cyber bullying and the apparent ‘freedom of speech’ that cruel people hide behind to tell people what they think. I once remember seeing a documentary about a young girl with a terrible illness. She was so thin that someone had taken her still image and put the caption ‘is this the ugliest girl in the world?’ over it. This was enjoyed and laughed about online and had lots of comments. The girl saw this, read all the comments and in an interview said ‘I couldn’t believe there wasn’t one comment which said the opposite, that I was beautiful.’ We have the incredible power to encourage with our words, and let others encourage us too! Do you do anything practical to encourage others with your words? Idea 2: Encouraging with Actions Barnabas also encouraged with his action, he sold land and used the moment for the disciples, he stood by men and didn’t abandon them when disagreements happened. Our lives are full of moments that call for us to encourage with our actions, to give, be generous, to go the extra mile and to show support and encouragement practically. Have you had ways in which you have done this? Maybe you have been on the receiving end of this stuff? What was that like? Idea 3: Encouraging with Time Lots of people these days would love to be able to do more encouraging with their money but just don’t feel they can, so they use time as a wonderful way to encourage. Listening to someone, being on the end of a phone, remembering to call someone who told you they have a difficult day coming up – all this really works! It can be so encouraging to know that you haven’t been forgotten, that someone cared enough to remember. ## Action Giving someone your time is such a practical way of encouragement, have you experienced this? Are there ways in your life that you can practically encourage someone with your time?