| 12. The gift of encouragement (Romans 12:8)—the ability to motivate people to action, service, and holiness in their lives, and the ability to give encouragement and advice to people so that they feel helped and healed in their spiritual lives. Proverbs 25:11 tells us, “A word aptly spoken is like apples of gold in settings of silver.” And Hebrews 3:13 shows us that encouragement has a crucial role in maintaining the purity of the church: “But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” People with the gift of encouragement demonstrate faith in others, even when others have given up on them.
We see the power of the gift of encouragement in Acts 9:26-27, when Paul arrives in Jerusalem for the first time after his conversion. The church was unwilling to receive him because of his history of persecuting the church. But one man with the gift of encouragement—Barnabas, whose name means “Son of Encouragement” (see Acts 4:36)—believed in Paul and helped to establish him as a genuine Christian and a genuine apostle.
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