Read it: Hebrews 10:24-25 & John 17:20-23 & Acts 2:42
Live it:
It has been a powerful 21 days. Learning how Christ has taught us to live. To speak differently, feel differently, spend differently, and love differently.
Honestly, I cannot think of a better way to wrap up this entire devotional than learning how to “love my church” differently. Loving our church is such an important concept. Finding a church family is such an integral part of a believer’s life.
But that is not what we hear in our culture. We hear “I don’t need to go to church to be a Christian.” Perhaps, but what does the Bible teach us? Hebrews tells us not to neglect meeting together and encouraging each other.
How can you love someone whom you never see? Realize this truth: proximity breeds intimacy. The first step in loving, and being loved, is actually being around them. Spending time with them. Making it a priority to be around them. Don’t neglect meeting with your church family.
Acts gives us 4 powerful principles of how the 1st-century church developed. These principles we should still follow today. Learning together, hanging out together, eating together, and praying together. Basically, living life together.
The concept of loving our church is so important that the night before Jesus was arrested and died on the cross at Calvary, he prayed for his disciples and his church to be unified. He didn’t pray for protection against harm. He didn’t pray for the provision of financial needs. He didn’t even pray for sinners to come to salvation. He prayed for the UNITY of HIS CHURCH.
How can we love our church? Ephesians 4:3 “Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.”