Let me encourage you to answer the following questions by circling yes or no. Try not to sit on the fence on any question. Be honest and true in your answers.
- Would you skip work to watch a football match?
- Would you quit/leave your job without telling the boss?
- Would you skip lunch with your family to go shopping?
- Would you miss your weekly sport’s training just because you couldn’t be bothered going or because you wanted to rest?
Most of us would say ‘No’ to these questions, if nothing else, out of a sense of decency and honesty. Yet I wonder how we would answer if the underlined words were changed to ‘Church’? Given that many churches have Sonday absentee rates of anything up to 50% of the congregation I am tempted to think that we would skip church to watch a football match, or that we’d leave without telling the leadership, or that we’d go shopping rather than attend church. I’ve been personally told by people that they didn’t attend church because they were too tired or couldn’t drag themselves out of bed.
God calls us to love Him with our entire heart, soul, mind and strength. Yet the lax attitude to church attendance across the board betrays our hearts and priorities. God sits idly on lower shelf often subject to better offers and relegated to the ’nothing better to do’ pile. Still others attack anyone who challenges them with the well worn cry of “legalism”, seeking to justify their own choice place God somewhere down the ladder of importance.
Loving God is not a legalism issue. Since God has loved us in Christ and has given us every spiritual blessing in Christ and because He has spared nothing, not even His one and only Son, in loving us, we should willingly and joyously love Him. Attending church is not the only way to love God but it is a key ingredient in expressing our love and gratitude for all He’s done for us. We simply cannot claim to love God if we cannot love God.
While these may seem like harsh words, let us live up to all that we are in Christ. Let us match our claim to love God with our lives and let us live joyously in His daily presence.
Prayer:
Write down your prayer points in the space provided. Use today’s reading to help you get ideas.
Adoration:
Confession:
Thanks:
Supplication:
- Pray that God would grow and mature both yourself and your congregation in love, in knowledge and in depth of understanding of how much God has given you in Christ Jesus. Pray that your joy would increase dramatically as you live in the love of God daily.
- Pray that your Session will be godly, Spirit filled and willing to apply the Word of God to themselves firstly before they apply it to everyone else. Ask God to make their work a joy as the congregation submits to their Christ-given authority.
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