How you doin'?

I've been thinking lately a little bit about daily interaction with other believers. I don't really get to speak to other believers on a daily basis, other than my wife. But what is often times lacking when believers do meet is biblical encouragement in and about daily life. We all just assume that everything in other believers Christian life is just fine, despite the fact that only rarely is EVERYTHING fine for me. And I am just as much at fault as anyone else. Sometimes, life is just rough, but we all feel the need to be "lone ranger" Christians, not allowing anybody see us bleed. Think about what it says in Hebrews 3:12-14

See to it, brothers, that none of you has a sinful, unbelieving heart that turns away from the living God. But encourage one another daily, as long as it is called Today, so that none of you may be hardened by sin's deceitfulness. We have come to share in Christ if we hold firmly till the end the confidence we had at first. As has just been said: "Today, if you hear his voice, do not harden your hearts as you did in the rebellion."

We're told to encourage one another, not because it's easier to get through hard times together, but because we can be the voice calling our fellow believers out of sin. Of course, some will respond that they aren't being hardened by sin, at which point we know we've been derelict in our duties.
There is another problem with our encouragement in addition to it's volume. Not only is it sparse, but it's often unbiblical. Colossians 3:16 begins:

Let the word of Christ dwell in you richly as you teach and admonish one another,

We need to force the Word to inform our encouragement of one another.

The Killers, Everything will be Alright


In teaching, we rely solely on the Word of God, but for some reason, in encouragement, we use the same inane drivel as the rest of the world.
When we don't use the Word of God as the source of our encouragement of other believers, it's equivalent to a positive thinking mentality. Tell yourself enough it's OK, and you'll be fine. We need to take a longer view. Is it necessarily going to be OK before death? No. This world is as close as we get to hell, so don't expect everything to be peachy. The correct view is that we will suffer for the sake of Christ, in the hope of a future glory.