Hebrews 10:19-25 - Love and good deeds?

As you avid readers of my blog know (haha, avid, I certainly hope so), Hebrews 10:19-25 was our first Bible study passage of the year. It was chosen specifically to go with our theme for the year - Saved to Serve... Any guesses why?

Therefore, brothers, since we have confidence to enter the Most Holy Place by the blood of Jesus, by a new and living way opened for us through the curtain, that is, his body, and since we have a great priest over the house of God, let us draw near to God with a sincere heart in full assurance of faith, having our hearts sprinkled to cleanse us from a guilty conscience and having our bodies washed with pure water. 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.

Anyway, I was particularly struck by the bit in bold. Not because it's in bold, mind you (you silly person you, I put it in bold myself!), but because I had just skimmed over it casually when reading it for the first time. And the second time. And the third time. But I had to stop and think about it when I was going through the Bible study questions. The ones that stopped me were:

How can we spur one another on toward love and good deeds?
What part should the Bible and prayer play in this?

Blind panic! What was the answer?!?!

Luckily, my brain hadn't disappeared too far off in the holidays (it never gets too far away; it's lazy like that), so I managed to haul it out for a quick think. And this is what I came up with.

We need the Bible when considering love and good deeds because:
- the Bible gives us examples of what love and good deeds look like! Not only through the ultimate example of Christ's love for us (i.e. sacrifice at the cost to self), but also through directions on how we can show this love (e.g. not saying nasty things about each other, but building each other with our words).
- the Bible reminds us why we are to love and perform good deeds! As seen in the Hebrews passage above, the writer doesn't start immediately with the list of "Let us..."s; he gives us the reason for this in that Jesus has broken down the barrier between man and God!

And prayer? Why do we need prayer? 'Cause we can't do anything without God's help!

So arising from these, here are a few tips we thought of that might be helpful:
- model to each other what it means to love and perform good deeds.
- talk about what it means to love in action!
- remind each other of Jesus and what He's done for us. There's no greater motivator than the amazing love of an Amazing Person!
- notice and quietly praise each other when you act in love and good deeds. We don't do deeds for men's glory, but it is encouraging when you're struggling with something to be appreciated!
- pray for each other.

Any other ideas?