Grace Of God And Flaws Of MenНамуна

Worshipping in Community 

Pitstops. No road trip is complete without them. Pitstops are the much-needed time to refuel, stretch your legs after sitting in a cramped car and get enough caffeine in your system to keep you going. 

Surprisingly, they’re not too dissimilar to the stops that Old Testament patriarchs would take on their long journeys to God-ordained destinations.

Abraham, too, developed the good habit or spiritual discipline of stopping to build altars and worshiping God wherever he went.

These instances of Abraham building altars coincided with spiritual transformation in his life. For instance, just after Abraham built an altar near Bethel and called on the name of the Lord there, he gave his nephew, Lot, the pick of the land. In doing so, he averted possible conflict. 

Abraham was able to fall in line with God’s plans every time he actively participated in corporate worship with his family and his community. 

This privilege of participating in corporate worship is not reserved for Old Testament heroes. You and I can enjoy times of worshiping God in our churches and home groups and Bible study groups. Just like Abraham and his family received grace for the journey ahead, pitstops of corporate worship refresh and renew us. These are rhythms of grace that God has created for us to enjoy.

We live in a world where worship is discounted. Meeting corporately for spiritual nourishment seems optional in a time when our schedules are already bursting at the seams. But, when we pull away from worshiping God in a community setting, we are starving ourselves of soul-transforming opportunities.

Perhaps, we should look at corporate worship as pitstops along our God-ordained journeys. We need them to refuel our spiritual tanks and realign ourselves with God’s roadmap for us. We need them to refresh us so we have strength for the miles ahead.