Everyone needs someone.
At some time.
In some way.
Encouragement can make or break a life; it has that much power.
Encouragement serves to help give courage to someone so they can:
Face what they couldn’t face, say what they couldn’t say, do what they couldn’t do, and believe as they couldn’t believe…
Maybe YOU are that “someone”…
Recently I wrote a book called, “The Power of Encouragement”. It was written to help each of us understand what encouragement can accomplish, and how to encourage yourself and others.
Here’s an excerpt from the book, “The Power of Encouragement”:
“The early church, even without all the high-tech gadgets—beautiful buildings at strategic locations, radio and television ministries, popular worship teams with copyright licenses and multimedia stage performances, Bible colleges and correspondence schools, and the latest marketing tools and gimmicks that the modern church often feels it must have to successfully “reach the lost,” shook the world and turned it upside down with the power of God. Multitudes were saved and discipled and took their place in the body of Christ because of a total commitment to the kingdom of God and because of people like Barnabas, the Encourager.
Barnabas, who was given the name Joses by his parents, was known among the apostles and church family as someone who would set aside his own preferences and opinions to encourage others in the ways of God. They knew him as a person radically in love with Jesus and the people Jesus loved. He was a giver of his time, comfort, and resources and could be counted on to help others. He was someone who entered into a situation, stood beside the one in need, and grabbed hold of that person until the need was met. So people began calling him Barnabas, the Encourager.
How important is encouragement to the work of God? How necessary is it to have people like Barnabas around? Can the work of God really be effective without people like Barnabas active in its ranks? Just how much influence did Barnabas have in the early church, and why should it matter to those of us living two thousand years later?
I believe that without people like Barnabas, the work of God does not move forward but dies out. Great works of God start in a blaze of glory, but it takes the encourager(s) to keep it moving. God moves on and anoints gifted leaders to plant works and ministries, to take territory for the kingdom of God. But souls, cities, and territories aren’t won without a struggle with the Enemy. Many lives and ministries have started well but, due to discouragement, have become shipwrecked along the way. But encouragers come alongside the gifted and called leaders, join themselves to the task, help lift the downcast, and inject hope into the situation.”
I encourage you to look for ways to encourage others. Go out of your way, if necessary. It really does make a difference for someone; possibly an eternal difference!
If you’d like to order a copy of my book, there are a number of different ways to do so.
WestBow Press http://tinyurl.com/lp23yhr
Amazon http://tinyurl.com/kjxk52u
Barnes and Noble http://tinyurl.com/lhjf59a
Christian Book Distributors http://tinyurl.com/m6whfbp
Also, you may go to your favorite bookstore and they can order it for you.
Now, go out and encourage someone.
Jan Grace 