Day 14: Find Your Barnabas

Thank you for joining us for Day 14 of the 31 Days to Hallway Praise challenge!

Do you have someone in your life who consistently encourages you?  In Acts 4:36, we learn that a man named Joses was renamed Barnabas, meaning "son of encouragement," by the believers around him.  What an incredible testimony about this man!

We all need a Barnabas - someone to lift us up and point us back to the Lord.  When times are tough and we find it easy to become overwhelmed with our struggles in life, we need believers to come alongside us to help us fix our eyes on Christ.

If you already have such a person in your life, let your Barnabas know how much you appreciate his impact in your life.  If you haven't yet found your Godly encourager, start praying and ask the Lord to provide you such a person.  (Note:  if you are married, your Barnabas could well be your spouse.  If you aren't, I encourage you to find a Godly woman to be your Barnabas.)

As you try to find your Barnabas, though, there are several things to be careful about:

Be content until the Lord provides your Barnabas

As wonderful as it is to have a son of encouragement in your life, be patient until the Lord brings him or her to you.  It's great to want such a person, but not everyone has the gift of encouragement, and it might take some time to find your encourager.

Don't become dependent on him

Having another believer to support you and point you toward God's goodness is a desirable thing.  But you can't depend on him to lift your spirits every time you go through heartache.  We are all human, and no one can flawlessly encourage you every single time.

Do return the favor

Think about how you can be a Barnabas back to the person who ends up encouraging you.  Better still - look for ways you can Biblically encourage every person in your life, those who encourage you back and those who don't.

Become this person in your spouse's life

If you are married, ideally, your Barbabas will be your spouse.  Not all people are naturally gifted with a positive outlook on life, though.  If you aren't, you're going to have to work at this to be your spouse's Barnabas.  If your spouse isn't gifted with encouragement, maybe this will be an area where you both can grow as your both your marriage and your relationship with God deepen.

Today's action steps:  Think about the people in your life.  Does anyone stand out as being an encourager, someone who is often reminding you to keep your focus on the Lord?  If so, that person may well be your Barnabas.  If you don't have someone like that in your life already, how can you find someone?  Is there someone at church who has such a reputation?  If you live in a rural area, you might want to start by finding an online person who could encourage you either through a blog or podcast.