Provoke One Another

Hebrews 10:24 - And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good works:

I will never forget sitting at the piano as the pastor was preparing to close out that service.  I was a mediocre musician at best, with a lot of insecurities that further limited my skills. I was playing the piano because the church had only one piano player and she was struggling spiritually.  As the evangelist’s wife, I offered to step in and give her a break during altar services for the duration of the revival. The pastor was a guitarist, so he understood music and the challenge of being a musician. As he was winding down, he turned to me and asked, “Do you know XYZ song?” I smiled and said, “I’ve never played it.” And began scooting off the piano bench so my musically talented husband could take over. The pastor stopped me with a look and a very softly spoken, “You CAN play this.” Nobody in the congregation would have picked up on what had just happened, but I knew better than to argue.  I meekly sank back onto the piano bench, nodded when he named a key, and began to play.  To my surprise, he was right – I could play it – and did so without missing a chord.

There are some things we do easily on our own.  Other things, we struggle with.  That’s why Hebrews tells us to provoke one another. When we hear “good works” we automatically assume that being provoked should be easy because it is a good thing, but the reality is, if it was something we WANTED to do, nobody would have to provoke us.  Too often, it’s a good work that we feel inadequate for or intimidated by. That’s why a certain amount of submission is required. Ephesians 5:21 says, “Submitting yourselves one to another in the fear of God.” When one of our brothers or sisters begins to provoke us to a good work, we have to submit to being pushed in the right direction, even when it’s outside our comfort zone.

The pastor of the church provoked me to a good work that day.  I didn’t argue, I didn’t fuss at him later for scaring me, and I didn’t pretend to misunderstand and let my husband play anyway – I allowed myself to be provoked. That would be one of MANY times I quietly allowed myself to be made very uncomfortable at a piano because the minister in charge of a service understood my insecurities and decided to push me past them. They understood, better than I did, that if they could provoke me to good works one song at a time, eventually, I would overcome some of those fears and be a more usable tool in the hand of God when it came to facilitating worship in the congregation.

What are your spiritual leaders or brothers and sisters in Christ trying to provoke you to? Are you submitting to their attempts to provoke you?