Day 15, 2011 Daniel Fast_Spurring One Another On_Cheryl Nevins and Ginger Zemelman

 Spurring One Another On

Are you like we are, facing some issues with your flesh, your soul, and your heart over the past few days? Ouch! Our “flesh” is painfully evident during fasting — facing failure, and all the “yuck” that has been illuminated. Yes! Our flesh will rebel!

We read from Romans 7:15-25 (15 I do not understand what I do. For what I want to do I do not do, but what I hate I do), of Paul’s similar struggle to hold on to what is righteous. Can’t you just hear yourself saying, “I do what I don’t want to do”?

There is a “poser” in all of us. The dictionary says a poser is, “someone who tries to fit into a profile they aren’t; people who try to give off the impression that they are one thing when they are really another”. It’s that part of us that wants to appear one way, when we really are another way. Our “poser” looks for excuses to do it all the easy way. We don’t want to face the challenges or be inconvenienced by others. A poser does NOT want to reveal their “true self” to others.

How can we get off this merry-go-round of our sinful nature and fleshly indulgences? Romans 7:25 says, “Thank God! Jesus has rescued us!” BUT, we must hold on to Him unswervingly. He is faithful, but we need the body of Christ to be able to walk out this hope and MUST encourage each other daily. (See Hebrews 3:13)

Who is the real you? We cannot run this race by hiding our true selves. It may hurt and it may mean re-arranging our lives and being inconvenienced, but that “poser” must go!

Hebrews 10:23-25, “Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds. Let us not give up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but let us encourage one another–and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”

Spur?? Did we read that right? Hmmm… aren’t spurs what you use on horses to get them going—digging into their sides to goad them on to greater things? Spurs hurt! They demand action. They are hard to ignore. They are not “politically correct”. Other translations use words like “provoke, encourage, promote, stimulate”—all action words. Okay, so we need to spur each other on to lose our “posers” and get real with ourselves and each another.

God has spoken amazing things over this body for both the near and unknown future. We cannot be who Jesus has called us to be if we are “posers”. In our 2’s and 3’s is where those spurs need to be used, all the while “speaking the truth in love” (Ephesians 4:15). It’s time to be real; to allow the Holy Spirit to work in the very core of our being to bring Him glory. Are you open to being provoked, encouraged, promoted, stimulated—yes and even spurred on to God’s best and highest for your life? Let’s go there together…

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