Therefore, encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. (1 Thessalonians 5:11, NIV)
Someone recently asked how I initially ended up attending our home church. Well, back in college, there was a new guy on the men’s golf team, whose roommate played in the worship band.
We all went to hear this guy play one Sunday morning, and the rest is history. After practice on Wednesdays, we’d eat in the cafeteria and then head to an evening service. Back again on Sunday morning.
Three of the guys on that men’s team found their wives in that church. One even married the pastor’s daughter. My relationship with the Lord grew in profound ways during those four years of college.
A decade later, I’d marry a man who grew up in the same denomination more than a thousand miles away. There’s no question that those years prepared me for Ben. It all started with an invitation.
What I’m about to write is for myself as much as anyone else. The Lord knows I need reminding, too.
Who have you recently invited to church, or Links group, or breakfast? Do you leave room in your weekly golf for someone new? Sometimes we need to make it a point to consider who God has placed on our hearts.
Go the extra mile, even when stretched thin, to welcome someone new to the table. Perhaps that person is already a believer, but is searching for a new church home or Links Fellowship.
Maybe it’s a widower who struggles to go alone. Maybe it’s someone much younger who needs the wisdom that can only come from experience.
Hebrews 10:24-25 lays out the merits of doing this life together:
“And let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another—and all the more as you see the Day approaching.”
PRAYER: Father God, we thank you for friendships, old and new. May we hear your calling to reach out to those in our community who long for connection. Give us the courage to be bold. To be joyful stewards of your hope and abundance.