2 Thessalonians. 1:3-4“We are bound to thank God always for you, brethren, as it is fitting, because your faith grows exceedingly, and the love of every one of you all abounds toward each other, so that we ourselves BOAST OF YOU among the churches of God for your patience and faith in all your persecutions and tribulations that you endure”
Who believes in you? Who risked investing in you when no one else would? Would anyone do that for you? Well, thankfully for Paul, Barnabas did! Barnabas, the son of encouragement, brought Paul to the apostles shortly after he was saved when no one believed in him or trusted him. Dr. Luke writes about this in Acts 9:27
But Barnabas took him and brought him to the apostles. And he declared to them how he had seen the Lord on the road, and that He had spoken to him, and how he had preached boldly at Damascus in the name of Jesus.
It was if Barnabas gave oxygen to Paul’s zealous soul. Paul would later use this zeal to breath life into the universal church. John Maxwell writes, “Encouragement is the oxygen of the soul; everyone needs it and they perform better when they get it.” Barnabas offered it to Paul, and now Paul offers it to the believers at Thessalonica.
Today, find someone you believe in, and boast about that person (as you read Paul just did) to them and others. Give them that oxygen to the soul!