Today's Daily Lesson comes from Hebrews chapter 3 verses 12 and 13:
12Take care, brothers and sisters, that none of you may have an evil, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. 13But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called ‘today’, so that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.
This morning I am thinking of all the encouragers out there who have not yet been given over to the seductive despair of cynicism. They still hope, still believe, still endure, still love, and believe in the redemptive power of being loved.
So they don't give up on us. They exhort us. They sharpen us. They encourage us like crazy. They love us -- like God loves us. They love us with God's hope for us and for the world.
It is a long journey. The 40 days of Lent reflect the 40 years of wandering for the Israelites. It is frustrating and exhausting and so very easy to become cynical and calloused. It so easy no longer to believe in the road, or its destination, or the people who are traveling beside us.
But thank God then for those among us who exhort and encourage us every day. Thank God for those who come with a little daily bread of uplift, and inspiration, and quickening of spirit.
To encourage is to literally "in heart". Thank God for those who make our hearts bigger. Day by day, and month by month, and year by year they keep they keep us believing in ourselves and in God.
Thanks be to God!
Ryon Price is the Senior Pastor of Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas.
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