The call to encourage
Key Bible Passages : Hebrews 10:24
Author : Rich Miles
There are times when we all need some encouragement in life isn’t there!
Think about it, maybe it was when you were learning to walk or talk for the first time, most likely you had someone there cheering you on or clapping their hands when you took your first steps or said your first word.
And as you’ve grown it’s been at other moments in your life like riding your bike for the first time without the stabilisers, having that staring role in the primary school nativity play as the second wise man who has one word to say at the top of his voice “frankincense” after the first wise man has had all the other lines!
Or maybe it been having someone to cheer you on from the side of the football, rugby or hockey pitch as you’ve tried to play your best for your team. or maybe it’s been in the classroom with a teacher encouraging you when you got a good mark on an assignment, or as you’ve been learning a new skill as you’ve been growing up.
More recently I enrolled in going to night school to learn how to do some basic home maintenance, things like plumbing so you can fix a leaky sink & or retiling your kitchen and lots of other helpful things but I remember bricklaying week, I was struggling with getting the cement spread in the right way and I was thinking about giving up and sitting this one out.
The lecturer could see I was struggling and instead of thinking “bricklaying is not for him and I'll concentrate on the ones in the class who can” he decided that it was his mission to try his best to show me how I could do it and improve my technique.
Now let me be honest I’m not going to become a bricklayer anytime soon and I now have a greater appreciation for Bricklayers because what they do really is an art & a skill but I did walk away that evening feeling very encouraged after the lecturer had taken time to invest in me to help and show me how I could improve my bricklaying skills!
Looking at our verse for this week in our Lent journey of drawing closer to God, Hebrews 10:24 calls us to "consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds,”
Here the writers of Hebrews are calling us to encourage one another in living out our faith and pursuing a deep and personal relationship with God in both how we love one another and the things that we do for one another.
You see we’re not just called to love others and do good deeds for others, no we’re called to encourage one another to do them too, even better than we have been doing. We're called to provoke one another in having an active faith.
You see I believe we’re all called to live and tell the story of Jesus being at work in our lives. But the great thing is we don’t have to do it on our own and we don’t have to have all the answers.
I believe that God has put people in our lives to help encourage us in developing our faith in him, for some it might be a parent, for others it might be their Vicar or Youth Leader in their church. Some people have official mentors or spiritual directors for others it could be their friends who they regularly meet up with to look at God’s word and pray together.
You see there is no annual performance review on how good or bad you are doing in loving one another and what good deeds have you done!
No God is calling us to go on a journey together with Him, with others and he’s calling us to speak into each other's lives instead.
So what does that look like practically well in 1 Thessalonians 5:11 - Paul says that we are to “encourage one another and build each other up”.
Friends, that's what I’m talking about.
If there is one thing that feels lacking in our world at times is people building one another up, we don’t often hear of politicians from opposing sides praising each other for what each other has done do we and if we’re really being honest with ourselves it’s too easy to find ourselves doing the same thing when we talk about others too.
So let’s take the words of Paul seriously as he again calls us to call out the good in each other, to share the encouraging things that we see in others, to speak positively about others and you know what? when we do this we start to build people up, we start to see peoples confidence grow and see people go from strength to strength in what they're doing and the situations that they find themselves.
Friends the writer of Hebrews 10 knew the importance of this and impact that we can have in the lives of those around us in living and telling the story of Jesus but also in us drawing closer to God too so having others speak into our lives and cheer us on and us in turn cheering others on too can only be a good thing.
Questions
To help with further reflection, thought or application.
1: Who can you be cheering on in their relationship with Jesus this week?
2: How could others encourage you to “to acts of love and good works”?
Prayer
Jesus, help us to look for ways to encourage one another to draw close to you today
and in the weeks ahead. Amen.
We’ve created an audio version of this devotional that can be listened to as a Podcast.