The Impact of Encouragement

"But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called 'Today,' so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness." (Hebrews 3:13)

Many times before when I've read this verse, I've wondered how it all fit together. It almost seemed like two different thoughts. Until today . . . the two fit together when I read it today.

I love how God's Word comes alive in new and fresh ways every time we read it, if we're listening for what He has to say. That means we can read the Bible many times and never get bored with what we're reading.

Back to the verse from Hebrews . . .

The writer of Hebrews is calling on those who claim to be followers of Christ to encourage each other on a regular basis. And the encouragement is to keep us following the path God has laid out for us and to keep us from getting stuck in a pattern of sin that pulls us from God.

When you're walking through life on your own, it's easy to get pulled off course. It's easy to begin to stray into an area of sin in your life and not realize the danger until you're in trouble because of it. It's Satan's specialty to subtly lead us off course - just a little bit at first, but over time it grows until we're really far off course.

I believe the writer of Hebrews gives us the prescription for staying on the right path more often and turning back sooner when we do get off course. The prescription is having other followers of Christ in our lives to encourage us to keep going the right way - even when it's hard.

We need people in our lives who can help us to keep going. Who will pray for us when we're struggling. Who will warn us when we start heading in the wrong direction. God made us to need people in our lives for that.

The culture we live in tells us we don't need anybody else, but the Bible says something different. The Bible tells us we need to learn to live in community with others.

It's probably easier in lots of ways to keep relationship with others distant. It means we can put ourselves first and do whatever we want. But, it's dangerous to live that way.

The truth is that living in relationship with other people is dangerous too. We take a risk to allow people to get close enough to encourage us when it's hard and warn us when we start to wander.

But it's a risk with a reward for taking it because it's only when we open ourselves up to relationships with others that we really get to live.

 

Do you have people in your life who encourage you regularly?

 

Do you have people in your life who warn you when you're beginning to head off course?

 

Are you that kind of person for others?

How Do You Respond to Interruptions?

A couple of days ago I wrote about a Bible study I'm a part of on the book of Jonah. I talked about seeing things as interruptions or changing our view for them to be divine interventions. Today, I want to talk about how we respond to those in our lives.

When God comes along and interrupts our plans, we have a choice in how we respond to that interruption. And how we respond will often line up with whether we see it as an interruption or a divine intervention.

Jonah saw God's job for him as an interruption. He didn't want to go to Ninevah and preach to them. He wanted to stay where he was in Jerusalem and keep doing what he was already doing. So, Jonah tried to run from God's new job for him - as far as he could in the other direction.

As we've been studying this, I've started to wonder what would have been different in Jonah's response if he had seen it as a divine intervention instead. What if Jonah had seen God's new job for him as an opportunity to participate in God's work? What would have looked different?

We are often faced with the same choice Jonah had. God has come along and interrupted our lives in some way and we have to decide what we're going to do.

Are we going to run from it?

Or are we going to step into it even if it doesn't seem like what we want in the moment?

We always have the choice. God will always leave us with the choice when He comes with an invitation to join Him in His purposes.

Has God interrupted your life recently?

How are you responding to it?

Interruption or Divine Intervention?

This fall I'm doing a study on Jonah - the prophet - with a group of ladies from my church. It's been a great study so far.

The subtitle for the study we're doing is "navigating a life interrupted." When I read that it intrigued me. Who hasn't had life interrupted? Who hasn't found those interruptions hard to navigate at time?

For these first couple of weeks we've been talking about our perspective on interruptions to our lives and how we respond to them.

It only takes a few verses in Jonah for us to see God interrupting Jonah's life. Jonah was a prophet to Israel - tasked with taking God's message to His own people. Then, God came and gave Him a different assignment.

God told Jonah to go to Ninevah and preach. Ninevah wasn't just a city that was not part of the nation of Israel. Ninevah was Israel's enemy. They were a brutal people and it is likely that Israel suffered loss at their hands. Now God was telling Jonah that was where He wanted Jonah to go and preach a message of repentance.

Talk about an interruption . . . God took Jonah's nice, relatively easy life and turned it upside-down with a new assignment.

Have you ever had God do that in your life? Take your plans and the life you've grown comfortable with and turn it upside-down with something new or different He brings your way?

Jonah had a couple of options in how he could see God's change of plans for him. Jonah could see it as an interruption to his life. Or he could see it as a divine intervention.

It changes everything when we see it as a divine intervention when God steps in and changes our plans.

What is a divine intervention? It's when God invites you to be a part of His purposes on earth in a way that may look differently than you planned.

It changes everything when we begin to see things as divine interventions rather than interruptions. Interruptions are often seen as rude or inconvenient or unwanted. Divine interventions are significant opportunities to join God in His plans.

How do you see interruptions to your plans?

What would change if you began to see them as divine interventions instead?