What’s Missing

These last few weeks have been a bit more of a challenge for me and my walk with Christ. I have been stretched and pushed outside of my comfort zone which is something that I have been praying for even before this trip began. I am so excited about what Christ has been doing to my heart as well as my relationship with Him. 

These last few weeks I have been trying to figure out some of the reasons why people don't want to get to know our God and have a relationship with Jesus. I started out journaling about how there are so many factors that shape our decision to either accept Christ or deny Him, but as I continued to pray about it I have realized that I think it is a much simpler and much easier concept. I think that it all comes down to love. 

You might ask why love? I thought the same thing. I kept praying and reading God's word to try to figure out why He was telling me that love is all it takes. Love is what brings people to Christ and the absence of it is what turns people away from Christ. 

So if it all comes down to love and we were commanded by Jesus to love one another including our enemies, then why have we not seen massive growth in the church? This has been really heavy on my heart the last few days and I wrote in my journal a little about what I think God has been putting on my heart concerning this matter. 

Who is it that is showing love to the non-believers? Is it not the people who believe in Christ? It is our responsibility as believers to share this love that we have been given to everyone we come into contact with. Why is it that when as believers we struggle and find the need to hide those struggles? Why can we not come to the body of Christ with these struggles and seek wisdom and understanding? What is missing in the body that allows satan to step in and speak the lies that isolation brings healing?

I have been questioning this for some time. I think that the biggest thing that is missing is love. I have been noticing the church has lost the idea that loving our brothers and sisters in Christ is more important than anything else. This love is not something that should be based on someone's struggles or on their strengths. Love is something that is required not suggested.

Without love we allow judgment and seclusion to take over. If we are secluding and judging those within the body of Christ then how can this same body open our arms to those who don't know Christ? It is impossible! We are telling people through our actions and responses to their struggles that this love the was freely given to us is not something that we freely give others. I believe that this is a way that satan has grabbed a hold of the church. He has taken this amazing gift of love that was given to us by Christ and twisted it to become a circumstantial love.

So when we wonder why no one comes to their brother or sister in Christ with a struggle or problem I think we need to ask why. Why are they not feeling loved enough to share those feelings or problems? Why do they not want to be vulnerable in a way that brings growth into their lives? Why do we allow shame to overpower us to the point of hiding? I think if we as the body open ourselves up to the idea that we have a love that was freely given to us so that we will be able to freely give it to others, than the body of Christ will see and amazing change and growth.

I am learning that struggling and brokenness open the opportunity to grow in our relationship with Christ, but this growth come only with the admission of being broken. So when we allow people to be broken and still receive them with love how can the body not receive growth?

Beyond the spiritual growth that will be experienced through that, I believe there will also be a physical growth in the church. When the world sees a place of acceptance and love why would they not want to know more about it? If I could go up to someone and say that I knew of a pace that was full of people with unconditional love as well as a place that sees brokenness as beautiful because in it there is growth, who would then say sorry but I like to be judged by the world, I'll pass? I don't think that many people would turn down acceptance and community for judgment and seclusion.

So why have we not seen a change in the church? Why have we been ignoring the very thing that was supposed to be the most important commandment? I am pleading with believers to turn from condemning and judging and to consider unconditional loving first. 

I have noticed that I have caught myself passing judgments too many times without first considering how I can love someone. This trip has shown me that I cannot look at someone and judge them based on their appearance, actions, beliefs, etc. It is not my place to do so and it hasn't been profitable. If Christ isn't judging me by my faults, struggles, sins, etc then how can I judge other by theirs? It is simply not my place.

I like to end this with a challenge that I have recently started to do in my life. I challenge those of you reading this who know Jesus as your personal savior to do something that might make you uncomfortable. I challenge you to love on someone that you would probably not typically love on. I also challenge you to open yourself up to another brother or sister in Christ and share with them something that you are struggling with. I believe that if we all do this we will see a dramatic change in the church. I think we will see a shift in the amount of love and growth in the church. I am excited for this change. It is so desperately needed. There is no better time than now.