Gather Together: The Importance of Community

People need people.  God knows that.  He encourages us to encourage one another.  We are not to be islands left alone to make it through this dusty earth.  He does not want us to neglect meeting together so that we may spur one another on in love and good works in our walks of faith.  It is not easy being alone.  God often employs His people to encourage one another in the faith.  If He can accomplish His purposes through ordinary means, He will not use miraculous agency.  A brother or sister’s sympathy or strengthening words are often far more precious at times than an embassy of angels would have been.  

We see in Scripture God using fellow sojourners to strengthen His saints over and over again.  This can be done in a myriad of ways from songs and hymns and spiritual songs to a word of affirmation – written or spoken - to thanksgiving and praise to just having a listening ear or a kind smile or an encouraging prayer.  Life can be difficult with all its ups and downs and one may never fully know the extent their word of encouragement lifted a soul.  We should be delighted that God usually works for human beings through other human beings forming a bond of friendship with each other.  To be sure, it is a blessing to be a tool in the Master’s hand to bring encouragement to His saints.