|
"Make a joyful shout to the LORD, all you lands!"
(Psalm 100:1)
Happy and blessed Thanksgiving week to you! I pray that you and your loved ones enjoy some sweet times of being together and giving thanks to God for all His blessings in your life. Quick reminder: Giving Tuesday is next week on Tuesday, December 3. Prayerfully consider donating to DFEA on that day; you can donate at dfea.com. Thank you!
There are some things that we can only do by ourselves. You have to take the test alone; no student ever took a group SAT or ACT exam! No, you are on your own on this one! Only you could have married your spouse. You could not have sent someone for you or had a group come to the wedding and say a collective "We do." No, it has to be "I do." When you apply for a job, you have to go it alone in the interview because you are being hired as an individual, not as a group. Spiritually this is true as well. You and I are accountable to God in how we respond to His offer of grace. You and I also have our own individual quiet times or devotional times with Jesus. I cannot ask you to go pray in my place and read the Bible for me. I don't go to God every morning with a group of people; I come into His presence, as Josh Turner sings, "me and God."
However, there are some things that are simply better together. I am so grateful to God for others! That is the title of my Thanksgiving devotionals for 2024: "Grateful to God." If you are married and have children and you are to sit for a family portrait, you do not sit alone; you sit with your family. If you play a team sport like football, you do not go out and line up by yourself against 11 other football players. This is not tennis or golf; this is football, and you are doomed if you don't have a team!
Spiritually, there are times to spend one-on-one with God, as we should all do daily. Proverbs 8:34 says, "Blessed is the man who listens to me, watching daily at my gates, waiting at the posts of my doors." We are to come daily to the gates of wisdom and receive what God provides–not every other day or on occasion, but daily. We also all need consistent corporate worship, where the people of God come together and do what no one could adequately do alone: join in with the chorus of other believers and worship God together.
The Bible tells us that we are to worship with the people of God. Hebrews 10:24-25 states, "And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching." My simple explanation of this verse is: we need to go to church!
I encourage you to make a joyful shout of praise to God with the people of God on the Lord's Day. We are much better and stronger together as a church. We, after all, have so much for which we can shout joyfully to God with a sincere heart of gratitude. |
Apple
Spotify
Deezer
YouTube
