Good Morning Everyone,
Our theme for this month: “Obeying God when obeying isn’t easy”
Our Bible verse for today: “Carry one another’s burdens; in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ.” Galatians 6:2 (HCSB)
Our thought for today: “God wants us to rely upon each other.”
Author Philip Yancey writes of the time he visited and Alcoholics Anonymous meeting with a friend. His friend was a professing Christian but did not attend any church. He told Philip that he considered is AA group to be his church family. He explained that his AA group was able to provide an important aspect of church life that no church he found had been able to give. Philip was surprised and asked for more of an explanation. Here’s what the friend said:
“None of us can make it on our own – isn’t that why Jesus came? Yet most church people give off a self-satisfied air of piety or superiority. I don’t sense them consciously leaning on God or on each other. Their lives appear to be in order. An alcoholic who goes to church feels inferior and incomplete.”
He went on: “It’s a funny thing; what I hate most about myself, my alcoholism, was the one thing God used to bring me back to him. Because of it, I know I can’t survive without God. I have to depend on him to make it through each and every day. Maybe that’s the redeeming value of alcoholism. Maybe God is calling us alcoholics to teach the saints what it means to be dependent on him and on his community on earth.”
That man’s story is a powerful lesson for all of us. We need God and we need each other. Unfortunately, we live in a culture that celebrates independence and self-sufficiency. Dependency is often portrayed as weakness – but not so in the eyes of God. God wants us to lean on Him and on others, and He will often use our times of trial and great need to draw us out of ourselves and to Him and to others. One of the hardest lessons we have to learn is to allow others to help. This is an area where many of us disobey God the most. We try to do it all ourselves.
I encourage you today to not only help others to carry their burdens, but let others help you to carry yours.
God Bless,
Pastor Jim
Oak Hill Baptist Church 