There will be times you don’t want to be around another Christian. I get it. I also know the reasons we don’t want to be involved in community are signs of our need for community.
I’m too busy. Am I the only one who has thought that? Think about being too busy… It isolates you. It takes you away from focussing on following Jesus. It removes you from others who are following Jesus and who can inspire you to follow Jesus too.
I don’t have it together yet. or maybe you have thought you need to get some personal habits under control before you show up. After all, everyone at a church seems to have it together. Let me tell you… It’s an act. No one has it together. We are all broken. When we don’t see ourselves fitting in we naturally remove ourselves.
I don’t have anything in common with them. If we lived life this way we would struggle to find any meaningful relationships. As soon as you would find something different in a person you would pull away. Any conflict of opinion, personality, pursuit, or passion drives you to pull away.
When we remove ourselves from community with other Christ followers our hearts begin to grow cold toward God.
We are like coals.
When you take us out of community we grow cold. Like a piece of coal goes cold when it’s away from the group we go cold when we stop gathering with other believers.
Our excuses that keep us from church or that small group that meets during the week becomes the very thing that cripples our spiritual walk.
Too busy for Sunday and the next thing you know you look at yourself and see yourself farther from God than you used to be.
Then we withdraw from our community of friends who are Christ followers. Sometime we impose the thought they are judging us because we feel guilty for letting our hearts grow cold. We then keep ourselves from the antidote for our spiritual seasonal cold—community.
So you feel a little guilty for letting your heart grow cold—we all have been guilty of that same thing. Maybe you should let your guilt push you to community not away from it.
Maybe you have been too busy. What should you drop so you can engage in that time with those two to three friends who help your heart grow closer to God.
Maybe they aren’t like you. Don’t forget the people who most unlike Jesus, like Jesus. Let Jesus be your common denominator and grow with them learning from their perspective in life.
What is your excuse from regularly being in a community of at least two other people who are following Jesus?
