You need to hear this! 👂

If you want to stay encouraged through challenging and discouraging times you need to be filled with the Holy Spirit and you need to stir yourself up in the Spirit (2 Timothy 1:6)! You can stand strong through discouraging circumstances because you have the power of the Holy Spirit in you, however, a sure way to further guard yourself up against discouragement is to surround yourself with people who are filled with the Spirit and will encourage you with the Word. In challenging times, you may want pity, but it doesn’t help you, you need the perspective that the Word of God brings. You need to see things from God’s perspective. You need to know the truth because when you know the truth you will step into freedom (John 8:32). One of the safeguards which we should all have in our lives is that of godly, Spirit-filled, Word-based friends who build us up in faith. We all need community – likeminded believers who will remind us of the truth, stand with us and encourage us to persevere.
 
“And let us consider one another in order to stir up love and good works, not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as is the manner of some, but exhorting one another, and so much the more as you see the Day approaching.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 New King James Version (NKJV)
 
Burning coals fade out fast when they aren’t amongst other burning coals. This verse says that in the last days that there will be some believers who forsake the assembling together of the saints – it’s a sign of the end times. I’ve seen it so often; someone is excited about God and is an active participant in the kingdom, but then for some or other reason they start going to church less and less. Then they start hanging out with other on fire believers less and less (usually because around them, their conscience convicts them). In all of this, they slowly stop getting into the Word and stirring themselves up. Eventually, they become self-centred, self-absorbed individuals who love Jesus and are going to heaven, but they are not active participants in His kingdom and they certainly are not bringing heaven to earth. An anti-church attitude is an anti-Christ attitude. Sorry, that was a bit strong, but if it shocked you, then you needed to hear it. The church is Jesus’ bride – don’t devalue what Jesus laid down His life for.
 
And yes, I know that the local church is but an expression of the church worldwide. And yes, you don’t need to go to church to go to heaven, but you also don’t need a parachute to go skydiving, but it does help! So many believers are missing out on the blessing and power of community because they are not attending and participating in a good local church. A lot of this anti-church attitude comes from the thought that “I don’t need to go to church because I am the church!” And then they say things like, “we’re having church now while we’re sitting in a coffee shop having coffee!” No, you are not the church, we are. You are not having church sitting in a coffee shop drinking coffee, you are having fellowship with believers while drinking coffee in a coffee shop. The church is the purposeful gathering together of believers. It’s a gathering for fellowship, worship, prayer, instruction in the Word and mission.
 
We are not supposed to be getting together to sit through another worship service. Yes, corporate worship is important, as is the preaching and teaching of the Word for the equipping of the believers, but we’re also supposed to come together with the intention of stirring up one another towards love and good works.
 
“Discover creative ways to encourage others and to motivate them toward acts of compassion, doing beautiful works as expressions of love. This is not the time to pull away and neglect meeting together, as some have formed the habit of doing, because we need each other! In fact, we should come together even more frequently, eager to encourage and urge each other onward as we anticipate that day dawning.”
Hebrews 10:24-25 The Passion Translation (TPT)
 
I know that there are some bad churches out there, but there are also many great ones even though there isn’t a single perfect church! Being an active and regular participant in a good local church will set you up to receive encouragement when times are tough, and it is also a place where God can work through you to encourage and stir up others towards acts of compassion and expressions of love. Don’t just look for what you can get out of a church but look for what you can contribute, as well. You can help to make the local church a place of encouragement and love!