The Perfect Support Group

Everyone needs support. We may try to deny it from time to time, but the reality still exists and rears its head in times of turmoil when we least expect it. People in the world have recognized the value of having support to help meet various struggles in life.

Specialty support groups now exist for people in almost any situation and facing various kinds of difficulties. But while these efforts have value in their place, they can never replace the greatest support group ever conceived: the church of our dear Lord.

How sad it is that many Christians fail to take advantage of the strength and support offered by the local congregation, for God designed it with this in mind:

“And let us consider one another to provoke unto love and to good words: Not forsaking the assembling of ourselves together, as the manner of some is; but exhorting one another; and so much the more, as ye see the day approaching” (Hebrews 10:24-25 KJV).

Every time a congregation assembles, Christians have the opportunity to lean on one another for support as they collectively place their confidence in God. The church is the perfect support group because it consists of people who admit their imperfections and needs while also having strength to offer to one another. The church has members who have problems like yours but also members who have addressed those temptations successfully from whom you can learn.

Most of all, the church is filled with people who care (Romans 12:15). No one person in the church has the answers, but we all have learned where we must go to find them (Jeremiah 33:3). —Kevin Rhodes

—Mike Riley, Gospel Snippets