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Thursday 12-1-22 5th. Day Of The Weekly Cycle, Kislev 6, 5783 71st. Fall Day
Read: Hebrews 3:7–19 | Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 40–41; 2 Peter 3
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Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today.” Hebrews 3:13
After another week of being beaten down by more medical setbacks, I slumped onto the sofa. I didn’t want to think about anything. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I couldn’t even pray. Discouragement and doubt weighed me down as I turned on the television. I began watching a commercial showing a little girl talking to her younger brother. “You’re a champion,” she said.
As she continued affirming him, his grin grew. So did mine.
God’s people have always struggled with discouragement and doubt. Quoting Psalm 95, which affirms that God’s voice can be heard through the Holy Spirit, the writer of Hebrews warned believers in Jesus to avoid the mistakes made by the Israelites while wandering in the wilderness (Hebrews 3:7–11). “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God,” he wrote. “But encourage one another daily” (vv. 12–13).
With our lifeline of hope secured in Christ, we can experience the power-packed fuel we need to persevere: mutual encouragement within the fellowship of believers (v. 13). When one believer doubts, other believers can offer affirmation and accountability. As God strengthens us, His people, we can offer the power of mutual encouragement to one another.
How has God used the affirming words of someone in your life to comfort and encourage you during a difficult time? How can you encourage others with your words today?
Loving God, help me live for You and lift others up in love with my words and actions.
For further study, read That Skill: How Words Invite Others into Freedom.
By Xochitl Dixon|December 1st, 2022
Encouragement Hebrews Three:7-19
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Read full chapter
Love, Walter and Debbie
Read: Hebrews 3:7–19 | Bible in a Year: Ezekiel 40–41; 2 Peter 3
Download MP3
Subscribe to iTunes
Encourage one another daily, as long as it is called “Today.” Hebrews 3:13
After another week of being beaten down by more medical setbacks, I slumped onto the sofa. I didn’t want to think about anything. I didn’t want to talk to anybody. I couldn’t even pray. Discouragement and doubt weighed me down as I turned on the television. I began watching a commercial showing a little girl talking to her younger brother. “You’re a champion,” she said.
As she continued affirming him, his grin grew. So did mine.
God’s people have always struggled with discouragement and doubt. Quoting Psalm 95, which affirms that God’s voice can be heard through the Holy Spirit, the writer of Hebrews warned believers in Jesus to avoid the mistakes made by the Israelites while wandering in the wilderness (Hebrews 3:7–11). “See to it, brothers and sisters, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God,” he wrote. “But encourage one another daily” (vv. 12–13).
With our lifeline of hope secured in Christ, we can experience the power-packed fuel we need to persevere: mutual encouragement within the fellowship of believers (v. 13). When one believer doubts, other believers can offer affirmation and accountability. As God strengthens us, His people, we can offer the power of mutual encouragement to one another.
How has God used the affirming words of someone in your life to comfort and encourage you during a difficult time? How can you encourage others with your words today?
Loving God, help me live for You and lift others up in love with my words and actions.
For further study, read That Skill: How Words Invite Others into Freedom.
INSIGHT
Because of severe persecution, Jewish believers in Jesus were pressured to revert to Judaism (Hebrews 10:32–39). To encourage them to persevere in their faith, the writer of Hebrews told them to fix their thoughts on Jesus as their supreme example (3:1–6; 12:2–3) instead of their unfaithful ancestors who missed the blessing of entering the promised land (3:7–11). With an emphasis on “today” (vv. 7, 13, 15), he urged them to obey God daily and help each other every day, so they wouldn’t develop an “unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God” (v. 12) and thus forfeit the blessings of salvation (v. 18).By Xochitl Dixon|December 1st, 2022
Encouragement Hebrews Three:7-19
7 Wherefore (as the Holy Ghost saith, To day if ye will hear his voice,
8 Harden not your hearts, as in the provocation, in the day of temptation in the wilderness:
9 When your fathers tempted me, proved me, and saw my works forty years.
10 Wherefore I was grieved with that generation, and said, They do alway err in their heart; and they have not known my ways.
11 So I sware in my wrath, They shall not enter into my rest.)
12 Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God.
13 But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.
14 For we are made partakers of Christ, if we hold the beginning of our confidence stedfast unto the end;
15 While it is said, To day if ye will hear his voice, harden not your hearts, as in the provocation.
16 For some, when they had heard, did provoke: howbeit not all that came out of Egypt by Moses.
17 But with whom was he grieved forty years? was it not with them that had sinned, whose carcases fell in the wilderness?
18 And to whom sware he that they should not enter into his rest, but to them that believed not?
19 So we see that they could not enter in because of unbelief.
Read full chapter
Love, Walter and Debbie
