And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of his return is drawing near.
(Hebrews 10:25)

Certainly there is more to encouragement than a smile and a quick pat on the back. We need to realize just how valuable it really is.

A good place to start is with the word itself. Encouragement, as used in Hebrews 10:25, is from the same Greek root used for the Holy Spirit in John 14:26 and 16:7. In both verses He is called “the Helper.” The actual term, parakaleo, is from a combination of two smaller words, kaleo, “to call,” and para, “alongside.” Just as the Holy Spirit is called alongside to help us, so it is with us when you and I encourage someone else. In fact, when we encourage others, we come as close to the work of the Holy Spirit as anything we can do in God’s family.

Believe me, when Christians begin to realize the value of mutual encouragement, there is no limit to what we can be stimulated to accomplish. It is thrilling to realize that God has “called us alongside to help” others who are in need. How much better to be engaged in actions that lift others up rather than actions that tear them down!

Realizing this, one man wrote, “One of the highest human duties is the duty of encouragement...It is easy to pour cold water on their enthusiasm; it is easy to discourage others. The world is full of discouragers. We have a Christian duty to encourage one another. Many a time a word of praise or thanks or appreciation or cheer has kept a man on his feet.”¹

The beautiful part about encouragement is this: Anybody can do it. You don’t need a lot of money to carry it out. You don’t even need to be a certain age. In fact, some of the most encouraging actions or words I’ve received have come from my own children at a time when my heart was heavy. They saw the need and moved right in—they “came alongside and helped.”

I am absolutely convinced that there are many thousands of people who are drying up on the vine simply because of the lack of encouragement. Lonely, forgotten missionaries; military servicemen and women away from home; collegians and seminarians; the sick and the dying; the divorced and the grieving; those who serve faithfully behind the scenes with scarcely a glance or comment from anyone.

¹Donald Bubna with Sue Multanen, “The Encouragement Card,” Leadership 1, no. 4 (Fall 1980), 52–53.
Taken from Strengthening Your Grip by Charles R. Swindoll. Copyright © 2015 by Charles R. Swindoll, Inc. Reprinted by permission of Worthy Books, an imprint of Hachette Book Group, Inc.