The Necessity of Daily Exhortation

…..but exhort one another daily, while it is called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.

Hebrews 3:13

There are things which we ought to do every day.  Physically, we ought to eat a reasonable quantity of healthful food, get a sufficient amount of rest, and engage in some level of exercise.  We ought to make daily use of the private means of grace:  prayer and the reading of the Word of God.  We ought to engage in family worship daily.  One daily duty which we have is something about which we may not often think; it is our duty to exhort one another in the things of God as a preventative to spiritual hardness.

Spiritual hardness is liable to creep into our lives at any turn of the spiritual road.  One aspect of this hardness is that it comes on by degrees.  As little sins creep into our lives like the “little foxes” of Solomon’s Song, they provoke in us a gradual hardening.  What used to shock us does so no longer.  Things we used to speak out against now find place in our homes.  Fervency in prayer becomes a wistful memory.  Why?  Because we have become “hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.”

Our exhortation of each other in the things of God is a preventative to that hardness.  We are made to mutually benefit and support one another, as do the various parts of the body.  When we encourage one another, by faithfully pointing each other to Christ, we become the instruments which God uses to keep the Body of Christ in good shape.   This exhortation may be general or specific, may be by the means of a personal word, a book, or the preaching of a message.

Exhortation may take various forms, but the desired effect is the prevention of that hardness.  Because this hardness is so much a hindrance to our spirituality, this exhortation of ours for one another ought to be both urgent and consistent.  The writer of Hebrews tells us to “exhort one another daily” (that is consistently); and “while it is called today” (that is urgently).

Behold the example of Christ’s exhortations to us.  How they warm our heart, how they fire us with zeal, how they encourage us!  Can we not diligently speak a word in season to one another in some pale imitation of Our Great Savior, that will meet the need of hungry hearts?   Surely, for the spiritual benefit that it will do, we ought to seek to add the language of Christ unto our daily activities.  Whom will you exhort today and how?

Our Lord and Our God,

enable us to be a channel of

blessing to one of Thy saints today!

Make us faithful exporters of the people of God.

Where the Bush is Burning

Tomm Tice