November 1 - Hebrews 3:1-19 - Your Daily Dose of Encouragement

Advertising slogans can be memorable or laughable. Many are forgettable. Some products change their slogan on a regular basis. From 1963 to 2003, Coke changed its ad slogan sixteen times! Others have so captured the essence of the product or service that the slogan stands for decades. Public service ad slogans seem especially long-lived. McGruff’s “Take a Bite Out of Crime” is over thirty years old; the United Negro College Fund’s “A Mind is a Terrible Thing to Waste” is over thirty-five years old, and Smoky Bear’s “Only You Can Prevent Forest Fires” has been with us for almost seventy years.

In today’s text, I think I have found the slogan for my blog – Hebrews 3:13a; “Encourage One Another Every Day.” I knew what I was doing was a good thing, but I didn’t know there was a clear Biblical mandate. But there it is – “Encourage One Another Every Day!” However, there is also a mandate in verse 1, and that one could easily compete for slogan status. That would be the phrase, “Fix Your Thoughts on Jesus.” After all, that’s what I’m trying to accomplish, too. I want to encourage everyone to visit God’s Word each day to keep their thoughts fixed on Jesus. It would be a long slogan, but I could just slap the word “to” in between them and go with that.

Before I make that decision, let’s explore this chapter of Hebrews and see why we are told to be encouraging and locked onto Jesus. The Word says those who confess faith in Christ are members of His household. That confession will prove hollow and we will prove to be pretenders to the family of God if we do not fix our thoughts on Jesus. Those whose thoughts wander into worldly, sinful patterns resulting in worldly, sinful behaviors reveal their confession to be lip-service. 

Twice the author quotes the phrase, “Today, if you hear His voice, do not harden your hearts.” With every exposure to God’s Word, we have a choice before us. To soften our heart or to harden it. If we consider what Jesus taught in the parable of the Sower and the Seed, our heart can be soft soil, receptive to the seed of His Word, or it can be hard soil that will not receive His Word. “Do not harden your hearts!” That is your encouragement for the day.

Jesus is the Living Word; the Word made flesh who dwelt among us. So, don’t harden your heart toward Him, either. Dwell on Him who dwelt with us. Meditate on His life and works. Be like His mother, Mary, and treasure and ponder all the things about Jesus in your heart. This text says that He is an Apostle, a High Priest, a Faithful Appointee, a Greater than Moses, The Son over God’s House, the Christ. Look at all of that mind-meat to chew on and savor! And yet we have within us the ability to treat these wonders loosely, to turn away from the Living God. That’s why we need encouragement daily. That’s why we must hold firm our confession and prove its genuineness with thoughts and actions that are continually connected to Christ.

Our devotion to Jesus –
Let’s teach the world to sing that it’s the real thing.
(oh, that’s Coke: 1971 and 1969)

Pray: Lord Jesus, you are God, and you watch over and care for your house, your family. I am a member of your household and desire never to wander away as I might be prone to do. Help me to keep You and your Word before me every day for the encouragement I need. And help me to be an instrument of your encouragement to others. Keep my thoughts fixed on You.