Week 1 -Survival Man

There is a show on discovery channel that always gets my attention. The show is called survival man, and it is about a man who is left all alone in some remote place on the earth, and tries to survive using only what he can find in his near by surroundings. I don’t normally watch much television, but whenever I catch this show I am so fascinated by it that I continue to watch the whole episode. The beginning of his journey seems to go well, the man seems to know what he is doing and everything seems to be going just fine for him as he has everything under control. A couple of days into it, he begins to notice the effects of going through the journey alone. He begins to find it harder and harder to find food and begins to lose hope. Then he begins to count the seconds that go by until he finds civilization, just desperate to be back in community with others.

As Christians, we too sometimes feel like we can be well off on our own. We think we have it all under control, and are just fine dealing in the world by ourselves. We figure we can survive off of the spiritual snacks we have, or we tend to believe being alone in our walk with God will keep us safe, just like the man from the show: if he stays in one spot, maybe help will find him, but that’s not how the God of the Bible works. The bible is filled with reason for community, even at the very beginning of creation, Genesis 2:18 And the Lord God said, “It is not good that man should be alone;” God made us to part of community. There can be many reasons for us to want to seek God on our own, but at the end of the day, God really wants us to grow more like his son Jesus Christ. One of the best ways this can get done is through community, fellowship and church.

Let’s think about it for a second…God wants you to be more like Jesus in being patient, showing compassion, putting others before yourself, pretty much loving your neighbor as yourself, Matthew 22:39. Without a community (i.e. a local church) we won’t have the opportunity to be patient with other believers, we miss out in encouraging others, we also miss out in showing humility when others rub us the wrong way. God wants to use us to encourage and build each other up, and that can’t really be accomplished when you’re seeking Him completely alone, that is simply stepping away from an opportunity that can allow true fellowship with a brother or sister. Maybe some of us are looking for the perfect church; maybe some of us have been hurt before by believers; maybe you have people around and still feel alone deep inside. These are bricks that get put on top of each other to build a wall that keeps God’s voice out from your life. It’s time to start knocking out some of those bricks. We must stop trying to make others in our own image. We must humble our hearts in order for God to transform us into the people he made us to be.

Let’s take that step today to commit to true fellowship with other believers. Let’s commit to a local church so we can serve God and bring others closer to Christ. Let’s commit to studying God’s word more so we don’t get lost in the wilderness and His word becomes a compass that shows us how to get home safely. The fruit of a close walk with God can be seen and committing to be in community will help us to bear good fruit.

“So stop trying to just survive, and live!” Matthew 12:33.

*Prayer: "Lord show me the reasons hidden deep within my heart, that keep me from bearing good fruit from being used by you in community. And may i simply humble myself to surrender whatever it is keeping me apart from being used by you"