Spur ‘Em On

I need to be spurred to faith regularly.  I may have bolted out of the starting gate yesterday, but need to be stirred again to keep running the race today.

Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin (HEB 3.12-13).

Why do we need to exhort one another daily?  First of all, because of our tendency to unbelief.  We must “take care” – be on guard against – “an evil, unbelieving heart,”  for unbelief can lead us to “fall away from the living God.”  We need brothers who will regularly confront our doubt, and lovingly spur us to faith.

Recently I joked with my fellow pastors that a potentially difficult meeting I was going to have with someone would probably be one more testimony to my mediocre pastoral abilities.

“Oh boy, here we go again,” they said, eyes rolling, “twenty-some years of preaching and pastoring down the drain.  All those years just wasted effort.  Here we go, Pastor Dinkball strikes again…”  Obviously they know me.  Occasionally I slip into low-level self-loathing, and though I clothe it with humor, unbelief and pride lurk behind the scenes, like cockroaches in tenement walls.

So they began to exhort me to faith, challenging my evil, unbelieving heart.  They reminded me that Jesus is building his church and it’s the power of the gospel and the Spirit that transforms lives, not my peewee efforts.  They also poked around in the soil of my motives – was I serving the Lord for man’s approval or God’s glory?

I felt like Bob Wiley in the movie “What About Bob?” -  “Owwww…Dr. Marvin…for the first time in my life, I feel like you can help me.”

We need daily exhortation to avoid being “hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

My sin of unbelief, which was momentarily deceiving me, if left unchecked, could harden in my heart, like slow-drying cement.  I needed my brothers’ instigation to trust God’s word and not be duped by unbelief’s lies.

Exhort “one another.”

It’s not just the pastor’s job.  So encourage your sisters to cast their cares on God, and hope in his steadfast love.  Incite your brothers  to serve, persevere, and be tender-hearted.  Spur ‘em on day after day.

And when you’re the one exhorted, RECEIVE IT, and thank those who care enough to speak the truth in love to you.

photo by Eduardo Amorim