Church (Take Me Back) DevotionalSample

WE NEED EACH OTHER 

I recently read a statistic that 56% of the entire world’s population has internet access (and 81% of the developed world), and with over 2.3 billion Facebook users, the world is more connected than ever before… right? Maybe not, at least not in ways that truly matter. It seems the more connected we become to the world around us, the less connected we become to the people around us. As Christians, we face a strong temptation to always be on-the-go, doing all the things that good, hardworking people do, often at the expense of Christian community. Sure, we have friends, co-workers, the other families at the kid’s sports games, but is that the same as Christian community, centered around the gospel for the purpose of building each other up in the faith? We tend to settle for surface-level interaction and activity-centered friendships rather than real, honest, open community. 

The temptation to place gathering together on the back burner isn’t unique to our modern world. That’s why the writer of the book of Hebrews wrote in 10:24-25, “And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching." We see in these verses why it is so important to meet together as the Church: to spur one another toward love and good deeds and to encourage each other. In fact, the phrase “one another” is used over 30 times in the New Testament to instruct believers on how to treat each other. How can you love, serve, comfort, build up, speak truth etc. to one another if you aren’t around one another? While technology can be great for so many things, nothing truly replaces the in-person gathering of believers living out the truths of God’s Word; seeing the hurt in each other’s eyes and speaking comfort, seeing a need and meeting it with mercy, laying hands on each other in heartfelt prayer, “singing psalms, hymns and spiritual songs” to encourage and remind each other of who God is and all He has promised.

We need each other. We weren’t meant to live this life all on our own. God has so lovingly set us apart as believers, called us His people, and given us each other so we can experience his blessing through them, and them through us.