The Power of Christian Encouragement

In Jesus you stand in a new place with God. It’s a higher plane altogether than what Old Testament saints experienced. For instance, God wants to bringjoyinto your life. The Law never promised joy.

God never wanted the blood of animals to be shed and offered on the altar (Psalm 40). He wanted a relationship of love and trust between Himself and His people. He desires that for you, too,

But our sin is always a barrier between us and God. So, Jesus came to this earth, grew to manhood, and at thirty years of age, He began His earthly ministry. He lived a holy, harmless, undefiled, and blameless life. He finally offered His own body to pay the price for our sin.

In Jesus, God ushered in the New Covenant, the promise that would reside in the minds and hearts of all who would trust His Son for their salvation (Jeremiah 31:31-34). It is through the blood of Jesus that you can come into God’s presence. And you can come to Him boldly, with great confidence that He will hear and respond to you in all His love, grace, mercy, and power.

Because of Jesus, you have a standing invitation to come to God now that you have been made holy by His blood. Your conscience is clean, and you have been made new.

But others need His grace, too. We all know life can be hard. In Jesus, you can serve others as a priest of encouragement. God is pleased when we seek out ways to encourage others, especially those who struggle in their faith. That encouragement becomes a lifeline and safeguards against falling back into sin.

Continuing to live a life marked by sin and rebellion against God after receiving the grace of Jesus carries grave consequences. That’s why the writer of Hebrews made such a startling statement: “It is a fearful thing to fall into the hands of the living God” (v. 31). So our encouragement can help keep someone from going down that dangerous path.

The believers to whom Hebrews was written had apparently suffered intense persecution and likely deep personal loss because of their faith in Jesus. But they refused to shrink from their faith because they had focused their hearts on the finished work of Jesus. Some faced imprisonment and others lost their homes and were forced to surrender all their possessions because they refused to renounce their faith. But in return, they received the blessings of His grace and the joy of suffering with Jesus.

Your faith in Jesus rests on the promise of God’s Word. Now you have everything you need to stand firm in your faith, even when facing mounting pressure to go back to your former life. And when others struggle, you can throw them a lifeline of encouragement, too. You can “go on” with God because Jesus gives you the grace to trust, the strength to keep going, and the patience to endure even the most painful of life’s circumstances. So, keep the faith … and let the encouragement flow.

Next: Discover the courageous faith of many who died believing the promise of eternal life in Jesus.

1. How is Jesus’ sacrifice able to bring joy to our lives in a way that the blood of animals never could?

2. Our salvation means that the Holy Spirit comes into our lives with the intent of changing us into a whole new person. Does this change the way you think about some of the struggles you may be enduring?

3. If we can come to God boldly, what is the basis for that confidence? Does it come from ourselves or from another source?

4. How can you practice being a priest of encouragement? Who in your life needs you to bring them encouragement?

5. God takes unrepentant sin very seriously in the life of a believer. What can you do in your life to guard against this becoming your habit?

6. Patience, faith, and endurance are all dependent on one another. Which of these needs the most attention in your life, and what can you do specifically to grow in this area?

7. Imagine you were reading this letter in the first century. What effect would these strong warnings have had on you? What effect do they have on you today?