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When Does Scripture Encourage Us To Encourage?


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)
          If you spend time on social media, chances are good that you will have read or heard someone who claims to be a Christian talking about how doomed America is, and how much we need to take up our guns and get ready to take this country back.. That is the draw of any candidate who talks of "making America great." This is the subtle voice of deceitful arrogance. Those who want to force America to its knees are no better. It is the same sin that Israel committed, claiming its blessing was its own doing.
           Another passage in Hebrews comes to mind: Hebrews 11. The author lists a number of heroes of the Old Testament who performed mighty deeds. He also wrote of unnamed heroes: "Others were tortured and refused to be released, so that they might gain a better resurrection. Some faced jeers and flogging, while still others were chained and put in prison. They were stoned ; they were sawed in two; they were put to death by the sword. They went about in sheepskins and goatskins, destitute, persecuted and mistreated— the world was not worthy of them. They wandered in deserts and mountains, and in caves and holes in the ground. (Hebrews 11:36-38)
      Elsewhere, Paul wrote And we rejoice in the hope of the glory of God. Not only so, but we also rejoice in our sufferings, because we know that suffering produces perseverance; perseverance, character; and character, hope. And hope does not disappoint us, because God has poured out his love into our hearts by the Holy Spirit, whom he has given us. (Romans 5:2-5)
     It is not in the face of potential victory that we need encouragement, but in the  face of seemingly inevitable failure. We need no encouragement to seek our own glory. We do need encouragement to turn away from the deceit of worldly power to seek a Christ-like life and to keep seeking it even it if means losing everything else.

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