Fellowship

I love spending time in a community of believers. Sometimes it is with a group Bible study. Sometimes it is with a gathering of like-minded friends. The fellowship between believers is always rewarding. I receive insight and encouragement from others and often find that we share common thoughts and questions.

That happened for me yesterday when I met with a group of about 20 women. Our study was on messing up as a Christian. We all admitted that we experienced times when our actions or thoughts didn't follow our teaching as believers. That we sometimes try to tell God the best way to do things. (Ha!) Or how we think things should go. But then we also ask for God's will to be done, contradicting ourselves in the same prayer. 

Believers need each other. We need to hear the insights that others have figured out. We need to be held accountable or corrected at times, too. In fellowship, we support one another and create a stronghold of faith. I envision a circle of women, locked in arms, in prayer. What a wonderful image of fellowship.

"Therefore we do not lose heart. Though outwardly we are wasting away, yet inwardly we are being renewed day by day. For our light and momentary troubles are achieving for us an eternal glory that far outweighs them all. So we fix our eyes not on what is seen, but on what is unseen. For what is seen is temporary, but what is unseen is eternal," (2 Corinthians 4:16-18 NIV).

Lord, thank You for friends of faith. Thank You for creating a fellowship of believers to strengthen us when we are weak. Open our eyes to the blessings we experience through friendships and Christian fellowship. We know You are the true source of all strength and wisdom. Help us see the unseen that is eternal. We pray in Christ's name, Amen.