Happy Monday!
After a wonderful service at church yesterday, I was just counting my blessings. All I had to do was look around and count so many! So many friends who are like family.
Our monthly carry in dinner followed church service. Looking around at the newly revamped fellowship hall, I counted all over again! It looks great, but the real blessing was the number of people who came together to make it happen! Everything from time and talent to muscles and money and PRAYERS! All of this and that’s just at church!
What is almost overwhelming at times, is the blessing of community. Our church community is so special. It is a family. Family watches out for each other and takes care of each other. We pray for each other, a lot! There are members of our family that, for various reasons, we haven’t seen in a while. They are still a part of us though and still part of our “family”.
Satan is always on the prowl. If we remain strong and keep our “family” ties strong, he will have a battle on his hands trying to break through!
The church, The Daniel Plan group, our Bible study group and our Sunday school class are all cords that bind us together. We are community and will remain strong!
Pray Unceasingly!!
In His light,
Lois
Community is God’s Answer to Defeat
By Rick Warren
“In humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others” (Philippians 2:3-4 NIV).
Each one of us needs other people to watch out for us — to defend us, protect us, and help us stay on track. In the book of Philippians, the apostle Paul tells us that we should look out for each other’s interests, not just our own. What a counter cultural verse! In America today, it’s all about me — my needs, my interests, my wants, and my ambitions. But Paul teaches us to look out for others, too.
But did you know you have a personal enemy who wants to defeat you. His name is Satan. He wants to bring problems into your life, ruin your relationships, and hurt you as badly as he can.
Why does he want to hurt you? Because he wants to hurt God but can’t, so he goes after God’s children. On your own, you will never win against Satan. But when you have other people to watch out for you and help you, you can be victorious.
Here’s good advice from Ecclesiastes 4:12: “Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves” (NIV).
Does anyone have your back? Is anyone defending you and watching out for your spiritual welfare? You need a community of people who are saying to you: “We’ll be with you when you’re going through the tough times. We’re not going to let you get discouraged or depressed.”
Community is God’s answer to overcoming discouragement and defeat. Ecclesiastes 4:10 says, “If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up” (NIV).
Remember: You can try, but you can’t live life well on your own. We all need other people to walk with us, work with us, and watch out for us.