“All the believers devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching, and to fellowship, and to sharing in meals (including the Lord’s Supper ), and to prayer.”Acts of the Apostles 2:42 NLT
All the believers were active in their faith. Their faith was from experiences past on by those who had met Jesus, are with him, fellowshiped with him, listened to his teachings and prayed with him. So if the first believers did this together modelling what Jesus had taught, why should we be any different?
Yet today their are believers who feel they need to be isolated to be better Christians. Like John on the Island of Patmos, I can serve God alone, I dont need anyone. Well to burst that bbble, John was sent to the island as a prison, to be isolated and sprite from those who the romans understood gave John strength. To be alone is a lonely existence, that’s why solitary confinement in jail is set apart as a prison inside a prison. Humanity requires fellowship to thrive. Followers of Jesus even more so.
I believe we have lost this in our church’s, sure not all may have lost this, but a vast majority have become to busy with daily activities of live to connect with their church family. Gone or rare are the days of having someone over for a Sunday meal, maybe replace with the convienne of restaurants, yet the intamicy of inviting someone to your home is lost.
How can we as a church get back to this way of connecting with tour family of believers? How can we break the patterns of apathy and malaise we have created? We want revival and our churches to grow, our strength to do this is in the people who are sitting to our left and right ever Sunday. Teaching one another, praying together, fellowshiping, eating meals including the Lords supper, these things build us up. We encourage one another in these times, we push one another to be more to keep going in the faith. Like an ember in a fire, if outside the main fire it will die out, we need to keep all embers in the fire.
Are you willing to be an agent of Change? It has to start with you.
Father, thank you for all that you do for us. I pray that as a family we return to the way the early church connected through teaching, fellowship, eating and prayer. Let us not neglect one another, for we are all unique and in our uniqueness you will be lifted up. Help us build one another up, guiding, moulding, and correcting if needed. Holy Spirit burn in our hearts a desire to be a strong family devoted to serving God, and the mission of reaching the lost. Connecting with our family will motivate us to grow our family so we pray that we will see this as you see it. The people outside the family of God matter to you, so they matter to us. Amen
50 Days of Pray 