How Our Commitment to Our Church Keeps Our Faith Alive
The church is not a building. It is a family of brothers and sisters who grow together in serving God. What keeps them together? It is faith that comes from the great love of God. Faith is the binding presence that keeps the church alive.
Today, more than two billion people build connections through the social media. As of 2017, Facebook continues to be the major platform for building online connections worldwide. This proves that, human as we are, we desire the company of our fellowmen, and social media is the fastest way to find the right people whom we can associate with.
In my case, I have been privileged to build stronger connections when I was introduced to a group of people in church. I was raised in strong faith, and I grew in love and constant encouragement to do what is good and right in the eyes of God.
The church is the people whom God has sent to make sure that we are properly guided in our spiritual journey. It is more than just the worship and tithe-giving community. More importantly, it is more than just the smiling faces that we see every time we meet them in our prayer meetings and Bible studies.
In every stage of our lives—childhood, youth, adulthood—the church is first and foremost our spiritual companion in our journey with God. Because the spiritual development doesn’t stop, we are encouraged to be more and more vigilant in participating in church activities as we grow older.
The unique and probably the most important aspect of being in a spiritual community is that we have someone who constantly intercedes for us. Having prayer support doesn’t mean that nothing can go wrong in our life, but it means that everything will work out in the end, no matter how difficult life can be.
Having a spiritual community allows us to be nourished with spiritual food by the exchange of knowledge from one another’s experiences. The good thing about growing up in church is that we get to learn from the struggles and triumphs of our church members. You get to share yours too, and they still accept you, your flaws and all.
The older we get, the more that we should be encouraged to seek God through our church. Keeping the habit when we enter adulthood helps us in more ways than we can ever imagine. We notice belongingness is a pressing need as bigger and more complex problems arise. The desire to have the spiritual support of the church becomes our utmost priority as we grow older in our journey with God.
Growing up in church and keeping the habit into adulthood keeps us humble. We meet people whose life stories inspire us to have a deeper relationship with God. We are constantly reminded that man cannot live without God and without companions. In the eternal words of John Donne, “No man is an island.” Having a community means you have a family outside your family. It is always a privilege to have a community that supports and nurtures your faith and love for God.
Does your church help you keep your faith in God alive?
References:
Kemp, Simon. 2017. “Digital in 2017: Global Overview.” We Are Social. Accessed May 12, 2017. https://wearesocial.com/blog/2017/01/digital-in-2017-global-overview.
Chaffey, Dave. 2017. “Global Social Media Research Summary 2017.” Smart Insights. Accessed May 12, 2017. http://www.smartinsights.com/social-media-marketing/social-media-strategy/new-global-social-media-research/.