Stir Up One Another

Photo: SMBCollege

As men, when we gather, we tend to talk about sports, gadgets, work, and health (once we get past 30 and every body part begins to hurt). It satisfies a surface need for community, but that’s not enough. Not by a long shot.

One way to fix that is to stir up one another spiritually by talking about what we are learning during our devotional time. And in so doing, we can take our friend’s spiritual temperature. If he has little to offer, then offer to help him right where he is. Sometimes the smallest of actions can lead to big results.

I read the following story recently in The Bible ExpositionCommentary, New Testament, Vol. 2 by Warren Wiersbe: 

A young mother admitted, in a testimony meeting, that she never seemed to find time for her own personal devotions. She had several little children to care for, and the hours melted away.

Imagine her surprise when two of the ladies from the church appeared at her front door.

“We’ve come to take over,” they explained. “You go into the bedroom and get started on your devotions.” After several days of this kind of help, the young mother was able to develop her devotional life so that the daily demands on her time no longer upset her.

Her two friends were committed to helping her get back on track, and she did. How can we as men do that for one another?

A couple of days ago, a male friend from church whom I have been praying for about a work situation sent me a text to ask how he could pray for me. I gave him two specific items and he set about to pray.

Yesterday, he sent me a text telling me he was continuing to pray for me and then he told me he was meditating on a passage he read during his devotions that morning from Mark 8, about picking up his cross and following Christ. He asked me to pray for him with Mark 8 in mind. And I did. I also began to pray it in my own life.

Then I sent him a passage I read that morning from Jonah 4 about God appointing a plant that grew over Jonah’s head to be shade to deliver him from his discomfort, telling my friend that I was praying God would appoint such a plant next to his desk that very day.

“I’m feeling His shade now,” he responded.

Speaking the Word to one another made a tangible difference in our lives. Short of being in the Word, we would have been speaking our own thoughts to each other and it wouldn’t have had the same power.

Hebrews 10:24-25 says, “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

In what tangible ways have you been helped by another man as he took an interest in your devotional life? In what tangible ways have you helped another man as you took an interest in his devotional life?