Meaning and Healing in Community

‘Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results’ James 5:16

There is a huge difference between living a full life and living a meaningful life. A life can be full of activity and still be empty. This is why you find people who seem to be materially wealthy but emotionally starved. God wants our lives to move from being full to being meaningful even as you are planted in a life group. Jesus gives our lives meaning [Matt.18:20]. It is not where two are three are gathered to gossip, or watch football that you find meaning but in the Name of Jesus. So when the gathering is in the Name of Jesus, it becomes a life giving experience. At small community [life group] meetings our lives become meaningful. When the presence of Jesus is in a gathering, people experience His touch in different ways. One of such ways is healing. We heal in community.  You cannot defeat persistent [besetting] sins by yourself. In community, by God’s grace, we are strengthened by each other. If you could deal with it yourself, believe me you would have. It is because you cannot do it on your own that is why God has planted you in a community. ‘Confess your sins to each other and pray for each other so that you may be healed. The earnest prayer of a righteous person has great power and produces wonderful results’.  Power of agreement is multiplied in the community [Matt.18:19]. Again, through other people’s experiences, we find the needed strength to deal with challenges. God wired us to need each other. Who is praying with you and for you; who are you praying for? Some of us fight people that God has sent into our lives to help us. May you never fight your helpers! It’s a terrible thing to stand alone when battle comes [Ecc.4:12a]. Some of us, God has put people in our lives to be our prayer partners. Yet because of minor disagreements we have opted out of that gathering. We have a way of majoring on minor things. You cannot make permanent decisions based on minor disagreements.

Prayer: Father, I ask that You take my life from just being full to being meaningful. Help us leverage on meaning and healing in our life group meetings, in Jesus Name.