Week Two – Day 2
TODAY’S FAST - Fast from All Junk Foods, Desserts, Sweets, and Sodas
Read James 5:13-20.
The church is the place where the different aspects of our lives intertwine. If we are enduring suffering in our circumstances, there are people within the church who will endure alongside us. If we have a reason to rejoice, there are other believers who will rejoice with us. When illness comes, we have people who will pray for us. When we struggle against sin, we have fellow soldiers who are striving for holiness themselves who will encourage us to continue the fight.
Don’t underestimate the role of spirituality in your life and don’t underestimate the essential role the church plays in our well-being. Walking through daily life with the people who are the church is essential to wholeness in life. Suffering alone and rejoicing alone are contrary to the Gospel. The new life in Christ is life in community and relationship, not isolation. The encouragement, accountability, prayer, and other actions of mutual care within the church are part of God’s plan to form us into the new people we are in Christ.
Prayer Focus:
Father, help me to see the many ways in which you have designed your church body to help me. Also, help me to devote myself to the church so that I might also pray for those who need it, encourage those who need it, and rejoice with those who need it. Help me to see how the church is a gift, essential to my well-being, holiness, and daily life, and not simply another organization among many. I pray in Jesus’ name, Amen.
Key Verse:
“And the prayer of faith will save the one who is sick, and the Lord will raise him up. And if he has committed sins, he will be forgiven. Therefore, confess your sins to one another and pray for one another, that you may be healed. The prayer of a righteous person has great power as it is working.” James 5:15-16 NIV
