Support in Community

Dear Beloved, 

When you are a part of a community, you have many different jobs to do. One of the biggest ones is support. Not coddled support. (Though that's important sometimes too.) When supporting someone, you pray for them, encourage them, and hold them accountable through correction. (This one I'll be talking about this week.)

1 Thessalonians 5:11 says, "Therefore encourage one another and build one another up, just as you are doing." When you are in any relationship, whether you are acquaintances, friends, family, or mentors, you have to build them up. And no, I'm not talking about their egos. (All glory goes to God.) I'm talking about their relationship with God. 

This may have just been me, but have you ever had a night where you're sitting at the kitchen table hunched over your tear-stained math homework. While your dad is trying to get it through your "thick skull," that 5x4 is 20, not 9. Believe it or not but sometimes getting someone to where they have to be isn't a pretty process. 

This isn't just my opinion. Examples of this are everywhere in the Bible and life around us. For instance, coal can't become a diamond without pressure. A knife can't be sharpened without pressure. A weak foundation can't become stronger unless it's completely torn down and rebuilt. If you really want to grow in your faith, expect a struggle. The fight against flesh is a hard one. That alone is mentioned everywhere in the Bible.

You make sure that they aren't doing something that could damage their relationship with the one true God. Supporting one another isn't covering for each other when you sneak out. It isn't protecting someone's feelings by sheltering them from the harsh biblical truth. It isn't comforting them when they feel guilt for giving into temptation and saying, "don't feel bad! Everybody slips up!" time and time again. 

When you support a person, it's because you want them to thrive. You want to see them make it to heaven. You hold them to the standard of what God has planned for them, and you don't let up. 

Support in a community is so much more than our culture makes it out to be. It's a lot tougher and so much more essential to being a Christian.