Now, what else does the Holy Spirit do to help us all not drift into destruction? He mentions at least six things, and I\u2019ll just mention them briefly. This is for our help. This is for our perseverance. This is for our rowing until we\u2019re in heaven.<\/p>\n
He tells us to rivet our attention on Jesus.\u00a0Hebrews 3:1\u20132<\/a>: \u201cConsider Jesus, the apostle and high priest of our confession, who was faithful.\u201d Or\u00a0Hebrews 12:2<\/a>: \u201c[Look] to Jesus, the founder and perfecter of our faith, who for the joy that was set before him endured the cross.\u201d It\u2019s no mistake that there are four Gospels in the New Testament \u2014 not one, four. Four different portraits of Jesus. Look. Look at him. Look at him every day. That\u2019s why they\u2019re there.<\/p>\n Be inspired by faithful, persevering Christian leaders.\u00a0Hebrews 13:7<\/a>: \u201cRemember your leaders. . . . Consider the outcome of their way of life, and imitate their faith.\u201d This is true of living leaders, and it\u2019s especially true of dead leaders whose biographies are so precious for stirring us up to press on. Oh, how significant biographies have been in my life to kindle my faith and hope when they have been languishing.<\/p>\n Don\u2019t fight alone. Don\u2019t row your boat by yourself. Exhort others and seek to be exhorted.\u00a0Hebrews 3:12\u201313<\/a>: \u201cTake care, brothers, lest there be in any of you an evil, unbelieving heart, leading you to fall away [that\u2019s drifting] from the living God. But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called \u2018today,\u2019 that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin.\u201d What a clear word from God that the antidote to drifting is to hear brothers and sisters exhort us with the word of God \u2014 even daily, he says.<\/p>\n Learn to interpret your afflictions as loving acts of discipline from your heavenly Father. They\u2019re intended to help us persevere in faith and holiness. In Hebrews 12, after the writer explains that the Lord disciplines the one whom he loves, he says, \u201cTherefore\u201d \u2014 and that\u2019s the key here:\u00a0because<\/em>\u00a0of this discipline, \u201clift your drooping hands\u201d (Hebrews 12:12<\/a>). That is, put them back on the oars. Put them on the oars. In other words, because you know the good purposes of God in your afflictions, don\u2019t lose heart and let your hands droop and fall from the oars and drift to destruction. Put your back into it. Row, row on, because God is for you even in your afflictions.<\/p>\n Make good use of the promises of God and the hope of great reward. For example,\u00a0Hebrews 13:5<\/a>. How shall we not drift into the love of money? Answer: \u201cKeep your life free from love of money . . . [because] he has said\u201d \u2014 there\u2019s the promise \u2014 \u201c\u2018I will never leave you nor forsake you.\u2019\u201d It\u2019s the power of God\u2019s promise that keeps us rowing upstream against the deadly current of the love of money.<\/p>\n And finally, the book ends with a prayer, a prayer to God by the author, that God would work in and through all these other exhortations.\u00a0Hebrews 13:20<\/a>: \u201cNow may the God of peace . . . equip you with everything good that you may do his will, working in us\u201d \u2014 the rowing \u2014 \u201cthat which is pleasing in his sight, through Jesus Christ, to whom be glory forever and ever. Amen\u201d (Hebrews 13:20\u201321<\/a>).<\/p>\n So, we take all these biblical strategies for rowing against the current of culture and sin, and we saturate them with prayer every day. I suppose that alongside the prayer that God would hallow his name in my life, the prayer I have prayed most often is this: \u201cKeep me. You have died for me. You have bought me. Hold on to me. Keep me. Don\u2019t let me stop rowing.\u201d And I hope you\u2019ll join me in that lifelong prayer. (Piper)<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" Now, what else does the Holy Spirit do to help us all not drift into destruction? He mentions at least six things, and I\u2019ll just mention them briefly. This is for our help. This is for our perseverance. This is for our rowing until we\u2019re in heaven. Looking to Christ He tells us to rivet … Continue reading “64.z. Hebrews 13:20\u201321”<\/span><\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[1],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-199437","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-daily-prayers"],"post_mailing_queue_ids":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199437","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=199437"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199437\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":199440,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/199437\/revisions\/199440"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=199437"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=199437"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.prayingpint.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=199437"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}\n
\n
\n
\n
\n