03/16/2022
As Christians we gather on the Sabbath to worship, praise the Lord, study scripture, and some of us meet again during the week to study the Bible, but how many of us come together during the week to simply encourage one another, and to comfort each other in Christ? How many of us gather to discuss how our lives are going, to share the spiritual challenges we face, or to cheer each other as we walk out our daily faith?
“Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing.”
1 Thessalonians 5:11 ESV
Knowing Jesus, God, and understanding scripture are incredibly important, but at some point we have to live out what we have learned by applying it in our lives, and that is the hard part. This is where we need each other’s support… in the application, in the living of a godly life. We need times together when we can discuss events in our everyday lives, ask for the prayers of our friends, and to laugh and cry as one family. If we don’t live our faith then it is quite simply a history lesson… an academic exercise in theology.
“But be doers of the word, and not hearers only, deceiving yourselves. For if anyone is a hearer of the word and not a doer, he is like a man who looks intently at his natural face in a mirror. For he looks at himself and goes away and at once forgets what he was like.”
James 1:22-24 ESV
My Wednesdays are full. I begin my morning like every morning with my daily prayers, reading scripture, and writing this devotional, but then I meet with a group of men from my church at the local McDonalds for a cup of coffee and to catch up on one another’s lives. We do this for support, and to encouraged our faiths. We talk about family, work, and whatever in life is weighing on us, warrants praising the Lord, or any other topic that might beg one to answer a very popular question… “What would Jesus do?” We need each other as we walk in faith, and we need the fellowship of other believers who sincerely care and support us as we struggle to live righteous lives as we should.
“But exhort one another every day, as long as it is called “today,” that none of you may be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin. For we have come to share in Christ, if indeed we hold our original confidence firm to the end.”
Hebrews 3:13-14 ESV
After my time at McDonald’s I drive to work, and for the next hour I meet via Zoom, and the internet, with another group of faithful men who are songwriters from across the country, and we too discuss scripture, and how it impacts our lives. These are godly men who’s musical talents determine much of what we hear on the radio, and whose professional lives are challenged daily by an industry that doesn’t always appreciate faith, God, Jesus, or the mention of spiritual topics. Together we talk about what we face in the workplace, the difficulties we have in living out faithful lives in the midst of those who are often opposed to our belief in Christ, and how we can survive when they strike out at us for practicing what we know to be true. We talk about how to live for Jesus and reach others as we traverse this spiritual minefield we find ourselves in each day. We do this by praying, discussing spiritual helps we have found, and generally being in the company of like men who are suffering the same difficulties, and who can help us escape the snares that await us in the world.
“No temptation has overtaken you that is not common to man. God is faithful, and he will not let you be tempted beyond your ability, but with the temptation he will also provide the way of escape, that you may be able to endure it.”
1 Corinthians 10:13 ESV
Wednesdays have become a midweek oasis for me, and many others, as we cross this desert wilderness we call life. On the Sabbath we predominately gather with others to praise, worship, and learn, but on our Midweek days we come together to give, and receive, encouragement that helps us live out the life that God, and Jesus, have spoken of, and are leading us to make our own. These are the times and places where we can safely take off the armor of God for a little while, and repair any chinks, or damage it has sustained during our week of spiritual warfare. This is a time when we can discuss with others of faith the challenges, hopes, fears, needs, and nurse the wounds we have sustained. This is where our faith, belief, and religion, become more than our aspiration, they become our life, and by being together in this way we find support, comfort, and a respite from the world.
Do you gather with a group of believers during the week to renew your strength, and to face life by supporting one another in living what we profess to believe? Is our faith alive in us, and not just an academic understanding of what it means to be a Christian? If you are not being encouraged in this way then it is time to come together, and find support, fellowship, and spiritual friendship… sometimes we need our faith to have skin on it.
Prayer:
Father, thank you for the fellowship we have with other believers, and the strength our spiritual lives draw from being encouraged in this way. Thank you for those who share with us how you have brought life to their spirituality, and the ways you have allowed them to escape the traps placed in their path by Satan. Help us to be friends in n Christ, and spiritual coaches to one another as we study your Word. Make your Word, and the gospel of Jesus, who we are, and how we live our lives. Holy, Holy, Holy, are you our God who joins us together as a Church, and a people whose lives are lived for you. Praised be your name for placing others in our life to encourage us, and to be examples for us. Merciful are you who brings us alive in your Word, and presence. Your grace abounds, your living water flows, and your Son Jesus not only walks with us, but abides within us always. Wash us clean in His blood Father, and help us as we witness, and are witnessed to. Bring us together to love one another as you love us, and to be encouragers so that we will help each other to live our lives as Jesus lived His. Find us worthy Father, and made righteous by our joint efforts of faith. We pray that you will see the image of Jesus in all of us, and will help us to reflect him onto those around us… especially those who are unbelievers, or struggling today. All glory is yours Father for every word of consolation and every touch in which our hand becomes yours as it strengthens another’s life as they live it for you.
“And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”
Acts 2:44, 46-47 ESV
Rich Forbes