Unity Forms Community

by Julie May

Unity forms community; community forms yet more unity. It’s another of God’s perfect cycles. Something I'm continuing to learn is the importance of community.  The feelings we all get when we are included, we feel loved, we feel safe, we feel secure.  It warms the heart.  Just like newborns needing tender touch and love to thrive.  We too, as Elder's wives, need community to thrive - to come together for the Glory of God. 

I can envision God smiling when we come together.  God gave us each other. Blessed biblical community begins with God's love for us - all of us.  We were created to live in community.  

Solomon teaches us: 

Ecclesiastes 4:9-10  “Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up."   

Relationships are challenging, tough, testing - but rewarding.  It is easier to be by oneself and hide away, than it is to put oneself out there exposing ourselves to others. 

David teaches us: 

Psalm 133:1  "How good and pleasant it is when God's people live together in unity!" 

Paul teaches us: 

Romans 12:4-5  "For just as each of us has one body with many members, and these do not all have the same function, so in Christ we, though many, form one body, and each member belongs to all the others." 

Philippians 2:3-4 “Do nothing out of selfish ambition or vain conceit. Rather, in humility value others above yourselves, not looking to your own interests but each of you to the interests of the others.” 

Galatians 6:2  "Carry each other's burdens, and in this way you will fulfill the law of Christ." 

I’m grateful to have people in my life to be accountable to, to trust, to rely on. Remembering the days when the neighbors were outside in plain sight, sitting on their sidewalks or porches, watching the kids play, gathering, talking, sharing life together, the love God gives should be pouring through me into my surrounding community in a similar fashion.  God has gifted each of us differently, and we all have something to give.  Once I get out there, and I am in community, I get filled up with love from my community and it makes it a beautiful, God -ordained cycle.   

Peter teaches us: 

1 Peter 4:8-9  "Above all, love each other deeply, because love covers over a multitude of sins.  Offer hospitality to one another without grumbling." 

I'm glad the community I have has shown me there is time for gathering and there is time for being alone.  We can't be with people all the time, and we can't be alone all the time.  We can find a balance with God’s help.  Being in community forms unity for the Body of Christ, and that representative unity will also spill blessings out to the community at large. 

For His Kingdom, 

Julie May