Resting In Jesus, pt 3
OPENING PRAYER:
Dear Heavenly Father, we cherish our time with you in your word. Thank you also for the blessing of fellow believers. Let us not neglect each other in truth and in love.
READ:
“Let us hold unswervingly to the hope we profess, for he who promised is faithful. And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, Not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.” 10:23-25 (NIV)
“Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. 13 For we were all baptized by one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. 14 Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.” I Corinthians 12:12-20
REFLECT:
While quiet, alone time is crucial to hearing from God’s word, we also know that quite simply, we need each other. God designed us to need each other and to function best together. What would we be without our people? A core Pathway principal is that we are doing this together as a community of believers.
Consider the rest of 1 Corinthians 12:15-19: 15”Now if the foot should say, ‘Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,’ it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 16 And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. 17 If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? 18 But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. 19 If they were all one part, where would the body be? 20 As it is, there are many parts, but one body.”
APPLY:
But of course, it’s not just a matter of being together as resting in Jesus is dependent on the content of our behavior toward one another. How can you spur other believers on toward “love and good deeds” as directed in Hebrews 10:21?
CLOSING PRAYER:
Father, thank you that your yoke is easy and your burden is light. We know that in this life we will be yoked to something. Soften our hearts to your word. Let it be a living thing, shaping and encouraging us. Give us rest. Amen.