Exhort
I find myself often saddened by what I see in the body of CHRIST when I look out at how some of us have brought the ways of the world into the church. Some of the things we have allowed to come in are the crab and jealousy activities and mentality. We pull our brothers and sisters down instead of lifting them up or we speak negatively or will not assist them because we don’t want to see them achieve all their goals. We think people are being favored over others and we spew this poison in the ears of others to turn their hearts to think as we do. This is not what we are called to do at all. What we are called to do is to encourage, cheer, and advise our heavenly siblings. The primary sense seems to be to excite or to give strength, spirit or courage to one another.
Today is the opportunity for many things to occur. Today by what we say to others is the choice to harden another to settle further into rebellion or to encourage another further into righteousness. Allow me to explain something for a brief moment, daily every blood washed child of GOD makes a choice to keep his or her back turned away from sin. Because everyday we are being saved by grace. Sin is ever lurking with its glamour and let’s face it, it’s what we know, it’s what we liked and it’s what we crave. Most times than not, we are not enticed to return to what we know because we miss what we left behind so very much. We return because of church hurt, because of the words we overheard, because of the actions of our heavenly siblings. What we are missing is that everyday is a today and when discouragement is being spoken instead of encouragement today was wasted. Sin is sophisticated, it sits back and waits for an opportune time and when it sees a weakness begins to speak. He or she don’t understand or will continue to replay like a loop all the negative words that you overheard yourself or that someone else told you. Over time before we know it we become harden and we no longer are attending church service and we are avoiding our church friends.
If not being encouraged by one another is a factor as to why there is such weakness in the body of CHRIST, then I completely understand. I’ve been involved in church hurt, I have walked away from attending church service but one thing I found out that my love for JESUS remained constant. Eventually, I realized that it was not HIM that hurt me but humans and their mouths, emotions, and immaturity that hurt me. Years later once I returned back to worship service I began to encounter this again as I was being noticed by the Bishops. In my maturity and growth in the spirit of JESUS, I kept my focus on HIM and not on them.
The Apostle Paul wrote that the church, the body of CHRIST who are people are to encourage one another daily. Now correct me if I’m wrong but is not daily defined as everyday or day by day? And not only that the Apostle Paul topped the statement off with adding the word “Today” to make it perfectly clear so that no person could misunderstand his meaning. Today is defined as present day. End of story. Our encouraging one another yesterday has nothing to do with us today. Yesterday is dead and gone that encouragement was alive and awesome then, today we need a fresh aroma in our lives. We all need to be cheered on toward our goals.
We must give hopeful advice that will lift not tear down. Being encouraged daily is better than anything we can ever imagine. We are so used to being discouraged and its feelings just think about what being cheered on daily will do for our souls. It will turn our world around, we will smile more, have a song in our heart, be more willing to help others, have a desire to encourage others.
Just as that poison that spread throughout for negativity to be a crab and jealous became infectious. So can the antidote of exhortation, exhort one another today beginning with yourself followed by the very first person you see and or communicate with.
Hebrews 3:13
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