#DailyDevotion Don’t Be Like The Israelites That Fell Away
Hebrews 3:12–14
12See to it, fellow Christians, that none of you has a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13Yes, encourage one another every day, as long as you can say today, to keep sin from deceiving anyone of you with its pleasure and hardening your heart to the truth. 14We share in Christ if we only keep our first confidence unshaken to the end.
We are saved by grace through faith alone. Yet we are warned here not to rest on our laurels. We are called to examine ourselves regularly that we do not have a wicked, unbelieving heart that turns from the living God. Remember the Israelites were called by God, saw the miracles, heard his voice from the fire on the mountain, but as soon as Moses went up the mountain they made idols for themselves. Despite the LORD delivering them from the Egyptians they grumbled against him instead of trusting him and placing before him their needs. Remember how they slid into idolatry and broke the commandments. The LORD brought their enemies upon them. They cried out and he delivered them with judges. Eventually they slid away once to many times and the LORD sent the Assyrians to remove the northern tribes from the land he gave them and they were never to be heard from again. He did as much with the southern tribes by the hands of the Babylonians and the Romans when they rejected him. We have the world, our own flesh and the devil always there tempting us to test our LORD and Savior Jesus Christ.
So what should we do? He tells us, “Yes, encourage one another every day, as long as you can say today, to keep sin from deceiving anyone of you with its pleasure and hardening your heart to the truth.” You see we are not to be lone ranger Christians. God did not create man to be alone. He did not save you to be alone or just you and Jesus. No, he created us to be in community with one another. We are called to gather ourselves as the body of Christ, to use the gifts he has given us to encourage one another and build one another up. Yes we are to encourage one another every day because that unholy trinity—the world, your flesh, and the devil—never give up daily trying to peel you away from Christ Jesus.
Yes, as long as we have today, we will have to struggle in the faith, but we don’t have to do it alone. True, Christ is always with us by his Holy Spirit. He also have given us one another as encourages to keep sin from deceiving us with its pleasure and hardening our hearts to the truth.
Fulfilling your happiness seems to be all the rage today but it demands heavy sacrifices sometimes, sometimes your salvation. There are competing world views with the Christian faith and it sure seems easier at times to follow one of those and harden our hearts against Christ Jesus. Some are even deceived into thinking they are actually following him better when they turn against the truth passed down to us by the apostles. We have one another to keep that from happening.
We share in Christ only if we remain faithful to the end. Many are called but few are chosen. So while it is today let us make use of the gifts Christ has given us to remain faithful; regular Church attendance where we hear his word, and receive the sacrament, prayer, and fellow Christians with Christ on their lips. Do this and you will not turn from the Living God.
Heavenly Father, we thank you for our salvation given us. We also thank you for the means of grace to keep us in this salvation. Grant us your grace and Spirit so we will make use of them today and remain faithful to Christ Jesus always. In Jesus’ name we pray. Amen.