S20P10 – The obstacles to faith: solitude

1 Cor. 12:12-13
For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

We were made for community. While there are many scriptural instructions on how we as Christians are to fulfill our individual walks with the Lord, we cannot ignore the fact that we are to operate as a single body. This means that no person walks merely alone with God and fulfills his or her spiritual calling. In order to fulfill God’s purposes, we must accept that He will require us to walk in community with others.

Jesus said that his disciples would be known by their love for one another. It is a clear picture of the fellowship and camaraderie that God requires of his children. Although we might not always agree on everything, and there may be people whose personalities conflict with those of others, we cannot escape the fact that we were designed to operate together. It is a great and holy thing for us to be able to put aside and ignore those things that normally would create rifts between people so that we can focus on the good work that God has for us to do as a unit. This is not something that we get to negotiate with our Lord. We must work and walk as one body for his glory.

That we were created to live and serve in community is not unknown to our enemy. One of his common devices is to isolate a believer so that he or she does not have the support that God has provided through the greater Church. In isolation, it is easy for us to lack encouragement when we have to weather an attack to our spirit. But when we follow the biblical instruction to remain in community with our brothers and sisters, we have the reinforcements we need to weather those storms successfully and together. As much as my walk is about my faith life, I am also here to contribute to the faith life of others. It is never just about me. Father, put in us the desire to fellowship with our brothers and sisters and to seek to work as one body for your purposes, forsaking the trappings of solitude for the glory that You have for us as one.