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Oct 24, 2024 18:00pm

What Now?: Church

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The following comes from the devotional book “What Now?” by Ashley Akers. To learn more, go to www.whatnowdevo.com.

Church

I often felt like a foreigner in the church I grew up in. I was rarely invited to teen gatherings and the few times I was, I felt the invitation was out of obligation. I am musically talented but can only remember twice in 18 years being asked to sing a solo. Those who were popular sang solos. I felt like I wasn’t good enough to attend because I didn’t reach a certain “status.” As a child, I remember thinking that I couldn’t wait until I was 16 so I could quit going.

Have you ever had a bad experience at church that turned you off from “religion” all together? Have you been hurt by someone attending a church? Have you been offended by a preacher? This is spiritual warfare and a misunderstanding of what “church” even is. Your enemy is also an enemy of the church and will use these hurts and anything else to keep you from entering the doors of a building where the people of God—the church—gather.

People sin, make mistakes and will definitely fail you. Guaranteed. But I know someone who won’t fail you and who is perfect in His love toward you. His name is Jesus, the Son of God. He was born perfect,and He died perfect for you and me—for the church. Jesus is the reason we have church, is the head of the church and loves the church very much.

John 3:16-17 says,

For God so loved the world, that he gave his only Son, that whoever believes in him should not perish but have eternal life. For God did not send his son into the world to condemn the world, but in order that the world might be saved through him.

God loves you and He wants you to have a personal relationship with Him. He wants you to focus on Him, His love, His grace and His ultimate sacrifice for you, and He wants you to do that alongside brothers and sisters in Christ. That is hard to do when our eyes are set on the faults of others, keeping us from this relationship that He invites us to enter. The Bible describes Jesus’ intimate relationship with the church this way:

Ephesians 5:25 says,

For husbands, this means love your wives, just as Christ loved the church. He gave up his life for her to make her holy and clean, washed by the cleansing of God’s word.

Jesus sees the church as His bride and so should we. We may think we are battling against each other when there is conflict, but instead we are fighting a spiritual battle. Satan and his angels use such tactics as gossip, disagreements, pride, unforgiveness, bitterness, jealousy and slander to keep us from loving one another well and displaying the love of Christ. Does any of this sound familiar? But, that is not how it should be. People who claim to follow Jesus should certainly model their life after His teachings with the help and correction of the Holy Spirit, but we must understand that people will still fail, even in the church. Jesus extended grace to us when we didn’t deserve it and we should do the same to people who hurt us.

By the grace of God, I didn’t quit going to church. I shifted my eyes from the faults of others to the love of my Savior. While those past situations were hurtful, they helped me run into the arms of Jesus. In His arms is where I should have been all along.

Reflection Questions

1. Have you ever been guilty of not wanting to attend a church?

2. Have you ever found yourself trusting in people more than Jesus? Did they fail you?

3. What steps do you need to take to trust in Jesus more and trust in people less?