Everyday Needs
Pastor Dave Monreal, Lead Pastor
There are some things that we need every day. If we stop to think about it the list is long. I need sleep every day. If I don’t get enough sleep, I am unproductive and more likely to be grumpy. I need to brush my teeth twice a day. When I was a kid, they told me three times a day and all that every did was made me feel guilty because who brushes their teeth in the middle of the day? (Sorry to the one of you that does.) You need to eat every day and use the “facilities” every day. I won’t go into any more detail with these two because they should be self-evident. There are automatic things you do every day such as breath and have your heart beat. We don’t think about these often, but these are basic necessities of life. (Hopefully) we shower every day. This has become controversial as some have said they only shower when they “need to.” I don’t know about you, but I know I need to at least once a day! As a Christian I would hope that you would include reading your Bible and praying every day. We don’t do this as a duty or drudgery but because we want to cultivate our love relationship with God. Here is one more:
“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 NIV (emphasis added)
| Notice what this verse says, “Encourage one another DAILY.” It doesn’t tell us to encourage one another once a week or twice a week if we are in a Bible study. It says that this should be done every single day. God knows what he’s talking about, and he says that we need to actively, intentionally be encouraging each other every single day. He gives the reason why to, “so that none of you may be hardened by sin’s deceitfulness.” We fight the “world,” the “flesh,” and the “Devil,” according to Ephesians two. Sometimes it two or three against one but every day we are in a spiritual battle. We buy into the world’s messages, or we find ourselves tempted by our besetting sins. The enemy loves nothing more than to tempt us or supercharge the things we are already tempted with. And every other believe is in the same battle and they need to be encouraged. Some of those believers need to be encouraged by you. Not only should we encourage one another daily but we should BE encouraged every day by others. We are not only to help others but we are to have others speak truth into our lives from God’s word so the Holy Spirit can imprint it deeply on our hearts. Like the old hymn says, we are, “Prone to wander, Lord I feel it. Prone to leave the God I love.” It is possible for ANYONE’S heart to be hardened by sin and for us to pull away from God. We fight the good fight and we encourage others to fight the good fight. I can’t explain it, but the Christian life is a group affair. We were never meant to try to live the Christian life on our own. We need each other. If all we needed was Bible reading and prayer we would not need singing or the preaching of God’s word. We could just have our Bibles and do it on our own. But God tells us to not forsake gathering together regularly (Hebrews 10:24-25). We need to hear God’s word preached TO US every week and throughout the week. (2 timothy 4:2) There is something that happens when others speak God’s word into our lives that doesn’t happen the same way when we just read it for ourselves. Both are important. But we were meant to be recipients of God’s word for others and God uses that in a different way than when we just read it on our own. Church is not incidental to the Christian life but central. You need godly Christian friends to speak into your life and you need to speak God’s truth into their lives. I need godly Christian friends to speak into my life and I need to speak into their lives too. And this needs to happen every single day. We need each other. We were never meant to live the Christian life alone. |
