To Encourage You

Hebrews 12:6 “For the Lord disciplines the one he loves, and chastises every son whom he receives.”

Have you ever been “slapped upside the head,” spiritually speaking? Have you ever been going along, happily doing your thing, and someone said something that stopped you in your tracks and made you think – really think? I have. One of the most memorable times was while I was in graduate school. One time a colleague – a non-Christian fellow student – asked me this question: “How can you do the things you do on Saturday night and still go to church on Sunday morning?” His question was direct, and it was sincere. He really wanted to know. And I remember that moment like it was yesterday, although it was over 40 years ago. I needed that rebuke; a not-so-subtle statement that “you, sir, are a hypocrite.” It was like someone hitting me alongside the head with a two-by-four. And it was one of the things that the Lord used to help wake me up, turn me around, and start on a path of wanting to truly follow Him.

It’s interesting that it was the words of a non-Christian that got my attention. There were likely Christians in my life that could have and should have said the same thing, but for whatever reason they didn’t – perhaps because they didn’t really know me well enough as I hid my sin from them. It is so hard to say anything negative towards people that we love. We resist the possibility that what we say may backfire, and that we’ll lose a friend. But don’t we really need friends who will be brutally honest with us, when brutal honesty is what we most need. Without this in my own life, who knows where I would have ended up. And I still need these honest rebukes in my life. Thankfully, I have a wife who sees me every day and who is honest with me. No sense trying to fool her about anything as she sees right through it – as do my kids.

So what about you? Do you have people like this in your life? Do you pray to God for it? Based on the verse above, we can be pretty sure that such a prayer would be God’s will for us. Thankfully He loves us enough to interrupt our lives when we need interrupted, whether we ask for it or not. From my personal experience, I’ve learned that it is just such painful interruptions that can be some of the very best things that ever happen to us.