The One About Being Connected

We went for a walk yesterday and for reasons that only they fully understand, my girls decided to tie themselves together with loom bands.

Connecting themselves to one another didn’t make walking along easier but it certainly did make becoming separated impossible without cutting the connection.

My youngest daughter was complaining of feeling tired until she connected herself to her sister and then they walked along together happily.

There is a lie that is spoken in churches today, sometimes you hear people say that their faith is just about their personal relationship with Jesus.

It is true that our salvation is about our personal relationship with Jesus, but our Christian faith is about how we engage with God and the rest of his people.

There are 57 references to ‘one anothering’ (eg love one another, encourage one another etc) in the New Testament. In other words, there are 57 commands from the person who you say is your Lord that you can’t obey if you think that your faith is something that is just between you and God.

You cannot be a disciple of Jesus Christ alone!

Perhaps you are unsure whether you are going to go to church today.

Perhaps you don’t feel like it, but then the primary reason for meeting with other Christians isn’t about getting what suits you. You see, Jesus didn’t say ‘make sure you gather so that other people can love you’ but he did say ‘love one another’.

Some Christians are only following a partial version of Jesus’ commands.

It is all too easy to accept the benefits of church without also accepting the responsibility of being part of the church community.

In the first instance, church becomes a place where we are a consumer to be served and in the second it is a place where we serve others as well as being served ourselves.

God is creating a people who he wants to be connected. Will we obey him or will we continue to buy into the lie that Christianity is an individualistic faith?

Of course your Christian community may not meet on a Sunday and that is okay.

Your Christian community may not have services and that is okay as well as long as we are remembering that Jesus is the one who we gather around.

Every Christian needs to consider how we can you be more connected to our brothers and sisters in Christ?

As we prioritize walking together, sometimes we will feel slowed down but God wants us to be a people who are connected.

Sadly the loom band snapped and one of the girls got pinged by it. There are times when we walk together as Christians when things go wrong and we or others get hurt. When this happens to us, it is natural to want to drop out of church altogether, but again we need to consider what God wants. He calls us to love each other and he also taught us to forgive and to mend relationships.

If you are hurting today, I pray that God’s love and grace would overwhelm you and that he would help lead you to a place where you can find healing and restored relationships.

So, how can you be more connected to your brothers and sisters in Christ?