This Week’s Personal Action Step

Be intentional this week to draw closer to those whom God puts in your path and on your heart.

This Week’s Group Action Step

Take time in the your next LifeGroup meeting to focus on genuine depth and care of each other’s souls.

JANUARY 25 - THE EVIDENCE IS LOVE

John 13:34-35 “A new commandment I give to you, that you love one another: just as I have loved you, you also are to love one another. By this all people will know that you are my disciples, if you have love for one another.”

Everyone needs love. Jesus gave us a new commandment which we can follow well when we embrace one-another as family… brothers and sisters in Christ. Being in a LifeGroup is incredibly important for that to happen. It is of course not the only way. But, as the body of Christ, embracing one-another in love is central to deepening our relationships. We want to be there for each other in these groups acting like disciples who love Him and each other. We all have room to grow in our connections with one-another. God saw fit to use the word ‘allelon’ (Greek for ‘one-another’) over fifty different times in the New Testament. Jesus calls ‘loving one-another’, a new commandment. As the body of Christ, we are to be the first to help each other and embrace each other as we follow our Lord.

Jesus goes so far as to say that the evidence of being His disciple is that you love one another. How much ‘evidence’ is there on you for someone to claim that you are a follower of Jesus Christ? Or are you exhibiting evidence of the opposite? Are you more about you than you are about others? When Jesus uses the word for love here, it means ‘giving expecting nothing in return.’ Do we do that in such a way that others know we are His disciples?

JANUARY 26 - DEEP FELLOWSHIP

Acts 2:42-47 “And they devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and the fellowship, to the breaking of bread and the prayers. And awe came upon every soul, and many wonders and signs were being done through the apostles. And all who believed were together and had all things in common. And they were selling their possessions and belongings and distributing the proceeds to all, as any had need. And day by day, attending the temple together and breaking bread in their homes, they received their food with glad and generous hearts, praising God and having favor with all the people. And the Lord added to their number day by day those who were being saved.”

One way they devoted themselves was to fellowship with one-another. ‘Day by day’ the early disciples were together and looking out for each other. In all of the ways we see the early church together, we know that they were building up the body of Christ. They embraced each other deeply as they fellowshipped together. They went beyond snacks and chit chat. They were doing life together. They spent time with each other in their homes. They helped each other in whatever ways that were needed. So, are we that way toward one-another? In what ways could we grow to be relationally close enough to love one-another and to know what each other needs…then meet that need? They had generous hearts toward each other. They are a great example of loving one-another. Why not ask Jesus to help you to be better at being there for one-another?

JANUARY 27 - GATHERING IS IMPERATIVE

Hebrews 10:24-25 “And let us consider how to stir up one another to love and good works, not neglecting to meet together, as is the habit of some, but encouraging one another, and all the more as you see the Day drawing near.”

It is almost impossible to stir one-another up, if you are rarely around one-another. Sure, you can use text, email, Facetime, and Zoom as Covid has required us to do. But we all know that those are temporary substitutes for the real thing. We need each other more desperately than we thought. The smiles, the genuine feel of being together, seeing each other’s face in person, even with a mask on, is great! But we cannot wait till we can be together like we were. We miss it. I think we can all say, we may have taken it for granted.

To stir one another up to love and good works, we must gather. When we gather, we must encourage one another. The body of Christ can do for each other what no other gathering on the planet can do. We can be built up as a ‘spiritual house’ by our Lord, by our gathering together and then stirring and encouraging one-another. Ask Jesus to show you where you may be neglecting to gather with other believers for deepening of relationships. Ask Him how you can better stir one another up toward love and good deeds.

JANUARY 28 - HOLDING BURDENS UP TO CHRIST

Galatian's 6:2 “Bear one another’s burdens, and so fulfill the law of Christ.”

Again, the word one-another. We do bear one-another’s burdens, but not alone. When we hear of a burden that one of our friends has, we hold those up to Christ. He is the one who ultimately bears all burdens. When we do so, we fulfill His law, that we love one-another.’

As we gather we should have time to share our burdens. Many times this is better done in even smaller groups outside of LifeGroups where we have deeper discipleship relationships. It is tough to squeeze all of the one-another’s into a one-hour meeting. It is impossible to bear that which we do not know. We need to develop trust with one-another so that we can share with confidence that it will not be spread everywhere, and, that they will actually lift it up to Christ. Sometimes a ‘silent prayer request’ is appropriate in a large group setting and maybe in mixed company. But with a close friend, you should be able to bear your soul, so they can lift the burden up to God. It is not that they bear it personally, but they hold it up and ask God to take care of it.

JANUARY 29 - PAYING COMFORT FORWARD

1 Corinthians 1:3-4 “Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of mercies and God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our affliction, so that we may be able to comfort those who are in any affliction, with the comfort with which we ourselves are comforted by God.”

If God is the God of all comfort, why would we need to comfort one-another? In God’s divine wisdom He has chosen to use other believers to be conduits of comfort to one-another. There might be days when our fellowship with God wanes, and the affliction is affecting us. God might use another person to come alongside us to comfort us and remind us who God is and how He loves us. It is actually encouraging to know that the comfort another believer gives us is the comfort they got from God.

Tomorrow you may be having a great day and know someone who needs comforting. If you can, comfort them. It may be that you are the one in need later in the week. Reciprocal comfort is available. But in many instances you will comfort someone who may never be able to comfort you back. That is actually not the point. It is though, that you are able to pay it forward. With the comfort you receive, comfort others.

He will never run out of comfort, and we will never run out of need for that comfort. Ask Him to show you who needs comfort, then go and give!

EMBRACING ONE-ANOTHER ACTIVITY

Is there someone you used to see in worship or in your LifeGroup that you haven’t seen in a while? Do you know where they are? Do you why they aren’t coming anymore? Reach out to that person and let them know you noticed their absence and that you care for them. They may be keeping their distance because of the virus and that is understandable but every one needs to know someone noticed they were gone.