Are you going through a tough time? Are you hurting due to loss? Do you need someone to lean on? Are you trying to carry the entire load on your own? Are you willing to allow others to help you?
We all go through tough times. We all experience loss. We all experience hurt. There are times when each of us will need someone to lean on for strength. There are times when our burdens grow too heavy. It is during such times we need someone in our lives who can help.
When we go through tough times, many of us reach out to family and friends. Some of us reach out to organizations we are members of. Perhaps it is a veteran’s group or our golfing buddies. Maybe it is a quilting group or our online “friends.” We all need someone who can help, and we need to reach out. No one can be an island that stands on its own.
It is during these rough patches in the road the body of Christ is there to love and care for one another. As one body, when one of us hurts, we all hurt. Just as our body sends white blood cells to heal a wound, the church sends people who can help. When one part of our body is weak, we use another part to provide strength. The body of Christ works in the same way.
We may not often think of it this way, but this is serving one another in the same way Jesus served when He walked this earth. As we serve one another, we all gain the help we need. We also become more like Christ through our service. We gain new insights to His service, the needs of others, and confidence others will serve us in our time of need.
It isn’t always easy to reach out in need. However, as we do, we find the body of Christ is willing and able to be there for us. It doesn’t mean we become needy. It means we are part of a well-functioning body that takes care of its members. It is a demonstration of God working in our lives through others.
I pray we all reach out for the help we need when we need it. I pray we realize when we are weak, God is strong. I pray each of us support one another during times of need. Reach out. Trust God to provide strength. Lean on one another. Be part of the body. Gain strength through weakness. Hurt with others.
1 Corinthians 12:24b-25 But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.
Marty Pressey 