O my soul,

Are you not encouraged?

No? Then what would encourage you? Do you even know?

Try this.

And 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

So if you would be encouraged then encourage another. So my question becomes, do you know how to encourage another?

It is most important that you understand this if you are to be of any use in the Kingdom. For there are some who think they can encourage another by dropping platitudes from the stratosphere while they cruise by living their own comfortable and privileged lives.

But of course that is no help at all.

And even before you begin to think about how, consider who⸺who to encourage. For it is not only the down-trodden who need encouragement. Listen to Moses telling of what the Lord spoke to him.

“Even with me the LORD was angry on your account and said, ‘You also shall not go in there. Joshua the son of Nun, who stands before you, he shall enter. Encourage him, for he shall cause Israel to inherit it.’”

― Deuteronomy 1:37-38

Moses was to encourage Joshua, who as we know was already a man of courage and conviction, albeit one who needed to be encouraged. For who doesn’t need that?

So the who is easy. It is each and every one. Do not hold back.

But the how can be harder⸺how to encourage? Let’s start with this.

For God has not destined us for wrath, but to obtain salvation through our Lord Jesus Christ, who died for us so that whether we are awake or asleep we might live with him. Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.

― 1 Thessalonians 5:9-11

Encouragement is about building up another, affirming and validating. It is most certainly not about platitudes. Indeed the dictionary definition is to give support, confidence, or hope to someone.

So let’s find some of that right here to use as encouragement for another.

When Christ had offered for all time a single sacrifice for sins, he sat down at the right hand of God, waiting from that time until his enemies should be made a footstool for his feet. For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

― Hebrews 10:12-14

Consider just that last verse.

For by a single offering he has perfected for all time those who are being sanctified.

― Hebrews 10:14

To perfect here means to complete, accomplish, consecrate, make perfect, to add what is yet wanting in order to render a thing full. And this has already been done for all time for those who are being sanctified, because Christ offered himself as the sacrifice for sins.

So we have to ask, are we among these being sanctified? For these are the ones who have been perfected, precisely the ones who are being sanctified.

O my soul, are you being sanctified?

But be careful that you understand the question. It is not about whether you are without fault. For it is only Christ who perfects, and that has already happened. But being sanctified is the ongoing process of being made holy.

O my soul, are you being made holy?

Consider the very next verses.

And the Holy Spirit also bears witness to us; for after saying,

“This is the covenant that I will make with them after those days, declares the Lord: I will put my laws on their hearts, and write them on their minds,”

then he adds,

“I will remember their sins and their lawless deeds no more.”

Where there is forgiveness of these, there is no longer any offering for sin.

― Hebrews 10:15-18

If you would be sanctified then God’s holy law must be on your heart. And you must understand what this means. It is not about being without fault, for we know that is utterly beyond us. No. It is about what you set your heart upon, what you desire above all. And that begins with intent.

For we know that the law is spiritual, but I am of the flesh, sold under sin. For I do not understand my own actions. For I do not do what I want, but I do the very thing I hate. Now if I do what I do not want, I agree with the law, that it is good. So now it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me. For I know that nothing good dwells in me, that is, in my flesh. For I have the desire to do what is right, but not the ability to carry it out. For I do not do the good I want, but the evil I do not want is what I keep on doing. Now if I do what I do not want, it is no longer I who do it, but sin that dwells within me.

― Romans 7:14-20

So, intent. We already considered that in this regard there can be no pretending. I wrote previously that if my deepest desire is to honour my Heavenly Father, he knows this, and my stumbles are easily forgiven as simply that. O my soul, is this your deepest desire? There can be no pretending!

For if you live according to the flesh you will die, but if by the Spirit you put to death the deeds of the body, you will live.

― Romans 8:13

Make this your deepest desire then, and by the Spirit you will indeed put to death the deeds of the body and live.

And so because of this ongoing but as yet incomplete process of sanctification by the power of the Holy Spirit you have already been perfected. And be further encouraged, because the Day is drawing near.

O my soul, encourage one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near! 🙏