We Are All “CEO’s” in God’s Eyes

If you’ve spent much time in church, you’ve probably heard a hundred messages about encouragement. There are verses about building each other up in love, serving others with gladness, and making sure nobody gets left behind. But have you ever thought of yourself as a CEO? Not the kind that wears a suit and carries a briefcase—but a Christian Encouraging Others.

When God looks at us, He doesn’t see titles or paychecks. He doesn’t care about your resume or how many people report to you at the office. What He does care about is the way you love people.

The Call to Encourage

Encouragement is Contagious

If there’s one thing our world could use a little more of, it’s encouragement. We’re surrounded by negativity; online, in the news, sometimes even in our closest relationships. But encouragement is one of those rare things that multiplies every time it’s given away. When you speak life into someone’s situation, it doesn’t just lift their spirits; it ripples outward and gives them the courage to pass it on to others.

You Don’t Need a Stage

You don’t have to be a preacher or a platform speaker to be an encourager. Most of Jesus’s miracles happened in small, everyday moments, at a dinner table, walking down a road, or sharing a meal with friends. The “stage” He cares about most is the place where your ordinary life meets someone else’s need. That’s where real leadership lives.

Encouragement is Obedience

Paul wrote, “Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing.” (1 Thessalonians 5:11) Encouragement isn’t just a good idea; it’s an assignment. It’s one of the ways we show our love for God. When you encourage someone, you’re echoing the heart of Jesus, who always noticed the overlooked, always spoke hope to the outcast, and always pulled the discouraged out of the shadows.

CEO’s Wanted

So next time you’re tempted to think your influence is too small, remember, God’s looking for CEO’s everywhere. The job description is simple: pay attention, speak hope, lift up, love well. No boardroom experience required.

The Ministry of Presence

When you encourage someone, you’re not just handing out compliments. You’re reflecting the presence of Christ. Remember how Jesus interacted with people? He met them right in the middle of their mess. He noticed what others ignored.

He saw the bleeding woman.

25 And there was a woman who had had a discharge of blood for twelve years, 26 and who had suffered much under many physicians, and had spent all that she had, and was no better but rather grew worse. 27 She had heard the reports about Jesus and came up behind him in the crowd and touched his garment. 28 For she said, “If I touch even his garments, I will be made well.” 29 And immediately the flow of blood dried up, and she felt in her body that she was healed of her disease. 30 And Jesus, perceiving in himself that power had gone out from him, immediately turned about in the crowd and said, “Who touched my garments?” 31 And his disciples said to him, “You see the crowd pressing around you, and yet you say, ‘Who touched me?’” 32 And he looked around to see who had done it. 33 But the woman, knowing what had happened to her, came in fear and trembling and fell down before him and told him the whole truth. 34 And he said to her, “Daughter, your faith has made you well; go in peace, and be healed of your disease.” (Mark 5:25-34 ESV)

Jesus called Zacchaeus down from the tree.

1 He entered Jericho and was passing through. 2 And behold, there was a man named Zacchaeus. He was a chief tax collector and was rich. 3 And he was seeking to see who Jesus was, but on account of the crowd he could not, because he was small in stature. 4 So he ran on ahead and climbed up into a sycamore tree to see him, for he was about to pass that way. 5 And when Jesus came to the place, he looked up and said to him, “Zacchaeus, hurry and come down, for I must stay at your house today.” 6 So he hurried and came down and received him joyfully. 7 And when they saw it, they all grumbled, “He has gone in to be the guest of a man who is a sinner.” 8 And Zacchaeus stood and said to the Lord, “Behold, Lord, the half of my goods I give to the poor. And if I have defrauded anyone of anything, I restore it fourfold.” 9 And Jesus said to him, “Today salvation has come to this house, since he also is a son of Abraham. 10 For the Son of Man came to seek and to save the lost.” (Luke 19:1–10 ESV)

He spoke life to the woman at the well.

1 Now when Jesus learned that the Pharisees had heard that Jesus was making and baptizing more disciples than John 2(although Jesus himself did not baptize, but only his disciples), 3 he left Judea and departed again for Galilee. 4 And he had to pass through Samaria. 5 So he came to a town of Samaria called Sychar, near the field that Jacob had given to his son Joseph. 6 Jacob’s well was there; so Jesus, wearied as he was from his journey, was sitting beside the well. It was about the sixth hour.

7 A woman from Samaria came to draw water. Jesus said to her, “Give me a drink.” 8 (For his disciples had gone away into the city to buy food.) 9 The Samaritan woman said to him, “How is it that you, a Jew, ask for a drink from me, a woman of Samaria?” (For Jews have no dealings with Samaritans.) 10 Jesus answered her, “If you knew the gift of God, and who it is that is saying to you, ‘Give me a drink,’ you would have asked him, and he would have given you living water.” 11 The woman said to him, “Sir, you have nothing to draw water with, and the well is deep. Where do you get that living water? 12 Are you greater than our father Jacob? He gave us the well and drank from it himself, as did his sons and his livestock.” 13 Jesus said to her, “Everyone who drinks of this water will be thirsty again, 14 but whoever drinks of the water that I will give him will never be thirsty again. The water that I will give him will become in him a spring of water welling up to eternal life.” 15 The woman said to him, “Sir, give me this water, so that I will not be thirsty or have to come here to draw water.”

16 Jesus said to her, “Go, call your husband, and come here.” 17 The woman answered him, “I have no husband.” Jesus said to her, “You are right in saying, ‘I have no husband’; 18 for you have had five husbands, and the one you now have is not your husband. What you have said is true.” 19 The woman said to him, “Sir, I perceive that you are a prophet. 20 Our fathers worshiped on this mountain, but you say that in Jerusalem is the place where people ought to worship.” 21 Jesus said to her, “Woman, believe me, the hour is coming when neither on this mountain nor in Jerusalem will you worship the Father. 22 You worship what you do not know; we worship what we know, for salvation is from the Jews. 23 But the hour is coming, and is now here, when the true worshipers will worship the Father in spirit and truth, for the Father is seeking such people to worship him. 24 God is spirit, and those who worship him must worship in spirit and truth.” 25 The woman said to him, “I know that Messiah is coming (he who is called Christ). When he comes, he will tell us all things.” 26 Jesus said to her, “I who speak to you am he.” (John 4:1–26 ESV)

Encouragement, at its heart, is seeing someone; really seeing them, then calling out the good you see and gently pointing them back to hope.

Little Words, Lasting Impact

Encouragement doesn’t have to be grand to be powerful. Paul tells us, “Let everything you say be good and helpful, so that your words will be an encouragement to those who hear them” (Ephesians 4:29, NLT).

You might be the only source of encouragement someone gets today. And in God’s eyes, there’s no higher position than that.