One Thing You Need To Do Today
So you wake up as you usually do, and hopefully in light of this blessing you take a moment to give God thanks for that. You get up and as your feet hit the floor, your mind starts reeling with all the things you need to get done today and guess what? all of those things sound pretty important, I’m never going to claim to know whether they are. However, in all our doing, there is one thing we must always be prepared to do as royals. Yes our quiet time or devotions is important, but that’s not it, our self care is important, but that’s not it, our to do list and daily schedule is important, but that’s not it. As a matter of fact, having all those things as part of our routines is necessary especially if they equip us to do that one thing.
TO EXHORT.
Hebrews 3: 12-13 says: “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 everyday, as long as it is called “today”, that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”
What are we to do?
The word exhort here is used several times throughout the New Testament, and most of it’s usage surrounds the matter of Christian relations. Based on this passage, all believers are part of this “Christian Relations Unit” (just made that up), in which we are to daily exhort each other. When we think of exhortation, we might think about a brief word of encouragement shared from the word at a service. Yes this falls under exhortation. However, we’re not going to be standing in front of a small group everyday, more so in these times when many of us are barely leaving our houses.
So what does it mean to exhort one another everyday?
The word exhort here means to summon, to address someone either to admonish them, to beg them to do something, to console or comfort in cases where a person might be grieving or to instruct or teach. So basically, exhortation can take varying forms, but one thing that’s for sure, it requires us to actively engage with another person or persons.
I use the term “we” here referring to the believer, the members of the body of Christ. The passage says “take care brothers”, not it’s not just referring to the men in the church, but the word here refers to all who are in Christ, all who are born again into the family of faith, men and women included. The writer of Hebrews was supposedly writing to a mixed audience of Jew and Gentile believers. So if you’re a believer, whether man or woman, from whatever culture, country or tongue, this admonishment is for us all.
How often are we to do it?
You guessed it! Everyday. This is not something we do once in a while, when the opportunity presents itself. In order to actively engage in it, it seems to me that we need to make a deliberate effort to reach out to others. If you make daily to do lists and colour code them like I do, include a to-do to reach out to someone and give it a colour that represents exhortation (hmm I should probably go do that now).
Who are we to do it for?
Each other. This was really an important reminder for me. Outreach, evangelism, these are very very important, it is the great commission of the church, but sometimes we forget the importance of checking in on each other. Or we can have an imbalance of checking in on each other more than we reach out to those outside our family of faith, depending on how you look at it. But my point is, it’s not just the responsibility of the pastor or elders in the church to reach out, I mean they try but most of the time they aren’t in your peer group and unless it’s really bad, you most likely end up responding politely like “oh great pas, I’m holding on!” admit it, you’ve done that. But when your peer reaches out with a two word “wah now?” you pour out your heart and soul… sometimes only to get a empathetic, “woi dawg,! (or girl, or boy… or dread), who knows what the kids are using these days. If we are to equip ourselves to be ready to exhort each day, how much more fruitful will these conversations be?
Why are we to do it?
So that none of us may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. In verse 12 the writer warns us about falling away from the living God, because of an evil, unbelieving heart. But we’re believers! Right?
When I think about the word “today” it really puts this into context. We know that at different times in the New Testament the audience of a lot of these passages were dealing with a lot of different things, persecution, dissension in the body, false teaching, etc. But what are we dealing with in our time? Just like the people then, we are facing some perplexing situations today, that may leave us struggling to keep trusting God. So much people are mourning the death of their loved ones, so much people are fighting through sickness right now, so much people are struggling to just get better without getting bitter, to not become resentful. But guys, it’s hard. The writer of Hebrews believes that a way to safeguard the family of faith from this, is if we behave like a family and reach out to each other. Not just to say, “yea I called so and so and he’s really going through it yes”, but to tap into the gift of the Holy Spirit to the believer to speak life into a situation. Sometimes you’re going to have to defend the faith to a man who is becoming faithless, sometimes you have to provide comfort and intercede with someone who doesn’t have the strength to do it themselves today, sometimes you have to share a word of encouragement, whether they ask for it or not. The purpose of it, is to keep us from falling away.
How then can we do it?
- Ensure that you have something to give. This requires you to spend time in the word and in prayer. Your quiet time with God matters here, your personal bible study matters here, because you can’t pour out what you do not possess. Memorize scriptures of encouragement to boost your confidence.
- Use your social media platforms. I don’t mean sending good morning pictures to full up a person’s storage, they might just delete you. But be attentive to what you share and what you post, can it fall under exhortation? Or is it more likely to stir up doubt and anger in a person. It doesn’t have to be deep and thought provoking all the time, but a good clean joke might just help lift a someone’s spirit.
- Schedule it. Life can get pretty hectic, and we can easily get caught up in our own stuff. So like I mentioned before, it might be wise to add it to your daily to-do list if you have one. Maybe you don’t have to go around looking for people everyday, but pick one or two persons that you’re going to check in on. Be prepared, God can bring people along for this very purpose during the day.
- Be open to receive it. There’s a cross section of Christians who don’t like to be reached out to. The always good, never bad folks, always holding on and never letting go. If you want to do what you should do daily and exhort others, allow yourself to be ministered to, too. You don’t have to tell everyone who asks you, your business, use your discretion, but accept encouragement, acknowledge when someone has ministered to you. Do not fall into the mature Christian trap of thinking you can’t be exhorted, so instead of being open to what the Spirit of God is sayin through this person, you’re busy analyzing their background, exegesis of the scripture, where they need to be corrected. Please help them if they need it, but be sure that’s after you’ve allowed the Holy Spirit to speak to you too. Let’s normalize calling a brother or sister and saying “can you send some encouragement my way today? I really need it.”
Faith is called for in this hour, more than ever before. We are in a wilderness experience and we have to be careful least we rebel against God, because of our hardened hearts (kind of like the Israelites did in the Old Testament). We want as much of us as possible to endure to the end, and that depends on how we relate to each other. As I exhort you today, I do so not from a place of authoritative superiority, you guys know that’s hardly ever the case, but this has convicted me as well and so I share it. I hope it does the same for you and I wonder what the family of faith in your area would look like if we all did this daily.
Be a blessing,
Kelly PW
Kelly is the founder of Royalty Press United. Author of the Gemstone Royals fantasy series, Twist of Faith and Crossroads. Counseling psychologist, proud Grenadian and devoted follower of Christ.
