Hebrew 3:12-13 – Take care, brothers and sisters, 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.

THEME OF THE DAY: WE ARE RESPONSIBLE TO EACH OTHER. We often hear of our need for fellowship with other believers to ensure healthy spiritual growth. This is a truth found throughout our Bibles. No Christian who neglects regular time of fellowship in the Word and prayer with other believers will maintain a healthy walk with the Lord. Isolate oneself or simply replace opportunities to be with other believers in the Word and prayer with worldliness and spiritual consequences will come. Lukewarm hearts, spiritual indifference leading to neglect of spiritual disciplines, and joylessness will result. The scriptures tell us “Let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near” (Hebrews 10:24-25). As it is with all sin in the Christian, this sin of neglect to be with other believers is willful.

There is another side of fellowship with other believers for spiritual growth. Not only do we need each other, but we are actually responsible to each other. Yes, really. We are spiritually responsible to each another. Now, obviously, we cannot “make” each other grow spiritually. If we want to be backslidden, worldly and want nothing to do with church and the things of the Lord, we cannot force each other to fight the good fight and run the race before us. The old saying, “You can lead a horse to water, but you cannot make him drink” has spiritual application. However, I don’t believe any of us want to be backslidden and bring dishonor to the Lord in our walks. And to ensure we don’t, we really do need to assume responsibility to each other; a responsibility of love and it is found in today’s scripture.

First, we see the warning – “take care, brothers and sisters, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away from the living God.” Beloved, there is no sin under the sun we are not capable of committing. Even as Christians. The remaining sin within us is strong and unless put to death daily, will lead us to some manifestation of sin. When it comes to sin the believer must fight, the most predominant one is an unbelieving heart. Unbelief is always at the ready to defeat us. It manifests itself in worry, sinful anxiety, stress, doubt, and in being prayer-less. Yes, prayer-less. Think with me for a minute about unbelief and prayerlessness. Prayer is an opportunity, even a command of God, to draw near to Him to unburden our lives and enjoy Him. To not practice regular prayer is to tell the Lord, “I really don’t believe You.” The most confident Christians in the world are the ones who most live in and practice prayer. They are near the heart of God and it is only a praying life which defeats the warning in today’s scripture – an unbelieving heart leading to a falling away from the living God. Backslidden Christians began the slide to that sad condition by neglect of prayer, privately and with other Christians.

That leads to the second exhortation in today’s scripture directing us to our mutual responsibility to each other – “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.” Want to know the chief sin which hardens the heart? Even the heart of a believer? The sin of prayerlessness. Show me a joy-filled Christian living for the Lord 24/7 and putting His interests and the interests of others ahead of their own, exuding the Fruit of the Spirit, and I will find a man or woman of prayer; both privately and with other Christian. Conversely, show me a hardened Christian who lives inconsistently the things of the Lord and if asked about their prayer life, the answer would have to be “What prayer life?” And when it comes to being responsible for one another in obedience to the command to exhort one another, there is no greater to do so than in the area of encouragement toward prayer. Let’s learn to do that with other believers in our churches and spheres of influence. Encourage, even challenge, even hold accountable one another to be a praying people, alone and with each other. It is the only way to keep from getting a hard heart by the deceitfulness of sin; the sin of unbelief manifested by prayerlessness.

PRAYER: “Father, help me to see not only my need for fellowship but my responsibility to fellowship.”

QUOTE: “We not only need to help one another in our walks with the Lord but we are responsible to each other”.