DAILY MAINTENANCE
“Take heed, brethren, lest there be in any of you an evil heart of unbelief, in departing from the living God. But exhort one another daily, while it is called To day; lest any of you be hardened through the deceitfulness of sin.” Hebrews 3:12, 13
One of the simplest, yet most effective measures to prevent spiritual decline is developing the habit of DAILY MAINTENANCE. Spiritual growth does not happen automatically. It comes with deliberate and consistent attention to the things of the Lord. We must be dedicated, disciplined, and determined to continue to move forward in our spiritual progress. If we are not growing closer to the Lord, we will eventually find ourselves drifting from Him and His fellowship. Satan wants to draw us away from God and rob us of our purity. Sin is deceitful. It can cause us to forfeit our spiritual power. It hardens our hearts to God’s Spirit, His Word, and even His people.
We are to be vigilant, on a daily basis, to keep our hearts right with God and others, staying the course of Biblical obedience. Our text encourages us to “exhort one another daily, while it is called To day.” We need daily attention to our spiritual condition. Every day that we neglect the basic matters of Christian discipline, the more it will affect our spiritual walk. We need to deal daily with our personal sins. Sins that are not confessed and forsaken will lead to more disobedience and tolerance of sin.
We are to fellowship with God’s people on a daily basis. The Word of God says, “exhort one another daily.” We need the regular input and interaction of fellow believers. One of Satan’s familiar, yet very powerful tools, is to get Christians to withdraw from their spiritual family. The casual and distant relationship we see today between fellow Christians and church members is not found in the New Testament. In modern churches, many professing Christians only see each other for a few minutes on Sunday, and there is minimal genuine fellowship involved. Those of us who see others in our church family four, five, or six times in a week are considered cultish or fanatical. When we read the Bible, however, we see that these faithful Christians were accountable to each other daily. Perhaps this is one factor that contributed to the great spiritual impact they had on their communities and the very small influence we have on our world.