Guard your life lest you fall away from the living God!  That is how I ended my last post.  But Hebrews 3:12-13 makes clear we ought not try to do this alone:

“Take care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.  But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.”

How can we guard our lives and keep from falling away?  It comes in Christian community.  We need to encourage and be encouraged in the faith daily.  Sunday services are important as we go to be encouraged in our faith by the preaching and teaching and singing and praying.  But we need DAILY encouragement from God’s people.

Iron sharpens iron.  Could it be that we are too often dull because of a lack of sharpening during the week?  Too often we are like lukewarm coals that come together on Sunday, grow warmer together, and then lose whatever heat we may have gained as we scatter for the week.

Alone there is the danger of developing hard unbelieving hearts that fall astray.  We need each other humans to help our hearts.  How can we make this happen?

In part this daily encouragement can happen in our families (if you have a Christian family) by daily studying the Word together, praying together, and exhorting one another.  Is this characteristic of your family?

In part this daily encouragement can happen through media – Christian music, books, magazines, preaching on the radio, internet, blogs like this one, etc.  What media are you daily ingesting to encourage you in your faith?

But the ultimate answer is that God created the local church for this purpose.  We are to encourage and be encouraged by others in our churches on a daily basis.  Many of us are too busy for this (maybe this is why we are weak?).  We need to visit one another, call, and send notes.  New technology like  e-mail, Facebook, and Twitter give us new opportunities to encourage others in our local church and be encouraged by them during the week.

So what steps can you take this week to encourage others in their faith?  What steps can you take to be encouraged in your faith?  Think family, media, and local church.  Don’t ignore this.  Don’t pass over it.  God may use our encouragement to keep someone from drifting away.  And we need daily encouragement for ourselves to keep from drifting away.

And as we encourage one another, perhaps instead of drifting away, we might have hearts that beat stronger every day for God.  May it be so!

Hebrews 3:7-14 warn us about hard hearts.  Israel hardened their hearts against God and were not able to enter the Promised Land.  Their hearts went astray.  And we are warned to take care lest we follow in their steps – lest we have evil, unbelieving hearts that lead us to fall away from God, lest our hearts be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  For we share in Christ (that is, we are saved) IF we hold our original confidence (faith) firm to the end.  That is, true saving faith endures.

How badly the church today needs the exhortation found in these verses.  Too many (and too often myself included) are too careless in their Christian walk.  Many think they said a prayer, and so they are in no matter what.  But no, we share in Christ only if we continue in the faith.  There is disagreement about those who don’t continue in the faith – did they lose their salvation or were they never truly saved (I favor the latter – see for instance I John 2:19).  Either way, this passage calls us to a vigilance, a seriousness, a careful regard for our hearts that is all too uncommon in the church today.

Beware lest you have an evil unbelieving heart, lest your heart is hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.  I doubt many people claiming to be Christians wake up one morning and say they are going to harden their heart and reject Christ.  A few perhaps, but for most I suspect this hardening is a gradual process often unknown to the person.  A slow drift away from God, his Word, and his people.  A slow movement into sin, toward the idols of this world.  A slow turning of the heart from seeking God to seeking other things.   Over a long time of gradual drift, they walk away from the living God.

And so we must take care.  Beware.  Be on our guard.  As Peter tells us: we must “be sober-minded; be watchful.  Your adversary the devil prowls around like a roaring lion, seeking someone to devour.  Resist him, firm in your faith….” (I Peter 5:8-9).

Are you drifting away from God and into sin?  Take care!  Wake up!  Seek God’s mercy and grace!  Look to him!  Return!  And guard your life lest you fall away from the living God!