There is Great Strength in Unity
Behind every successful organisation or team lies a group of united individuals that are able to achieve something greater together than they ever could on their own.
“They all met together and were constantly united in prayer…” (Acts 1:14)
The New Testament church in the book of Acts recognised this and were committed to being united in love for one another as well as in their hearts and thinking. They were constantly meeting together as well. As they continued to meet, share and worship God together, they were greatly blessed by the Lord and enjoyed the goodwill of the people around them.
Commitment is something we have to choose and prioritise, and often involves sacrifice on our part. Just like team players who make decisions for the benefit of the collective rather than self, it takes humility and denying of our rights to build unity and harmony.
“Make every effort to keep yourselves united in the Spirit, binding yourselves together with peace.” (Ephesians 4:3)
It is not easy to build unity in the body of Christ; that is why we need to preserve the unity of the Spirit in the bond of peace. There might be internal and external factors that seek to divide us, but with Christ in us, we have the capacity to exercise grace and understanding to work together for a common cause.
As we enter this new season, let us aim to be peacemakers and instruments of God to bring about unity in the body of Christ. A people who are united are difficult to stop.
Reflection
What attitudes ought to be cultivated in order to keep the unity in the bond of peace?
What are some differences that are needed to reconcile as we work towards fostering unity in our church?
Prayer
Dear Lord, help us to grow in our ability to bring reconciliation and peace in the body of Christ. Give us a spirit of humility and forbearance towards one another and a greater level of unity in our church and among the churches in our nation.
Fasting 15. **Expressing Devotion and Worship**: Fasting expresses devotion and worship to God, demonstrating a willingness to sacrifice for Him, as Paul mentions in Romans 12:1: “I appeal to you therefore, brothers, by the mercies of God, to present your bodies as a living sacrifice, holy and acceptable to God, which is your spiritual worship.”
PSALMS 133
1 How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!
.
ACTS 1
14 They all joined together constantly in prayer, along with the women and Mary the mother of Jesus, and with his brothers.
EPHESIANS 4
3Make every effort to keep the unity of the Spirit through the bond of peace.
PHILIPPIANS 3
No Confidence in the Flesh
1 Further, my brothers and sisters, rejoice in the Lord! It is no trouble for me to write the same things to you again, and it is a safeguard for you. 2 Watch out for those dogs, those evildoers, those mutilators of the flesh. 3 For it is we who are the circumcision, we who serve God by his Spirit, who boast in Christ Jesus, and who put no confidence in the flesh— 4 though I myself have reasons for such confidence.
If someone else thinks they have reasons to put confidence in the flesh, I have more: 5circumcised on the eighth day, of the people of Israel, of the tribe of Benjamin, a Hebrew of Hebrews; in regard to the law, a Pharisee; 6as for zeal, persecuting the church; as for righteousness based on the law, faultless.
7 But whatever were gains to me I now consider loss for the sake of Christ. 8 What is more, I consider everything a loss because of the surpassing worth of knowing Christ Jesus my Lord, for whose sake I have lost all things. I consider them garbage, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in him, not having a righteousness of my own that comes from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ—the righteousness that comes from God on the basis of faith. 10 I want to know Christ—yes, to know the power of his resurrection and participation in his sufferings, becoming like him in his death, 11and so, somehow, attaining to the resurrection from the dead.
12 Not that I have already obtained all this, or have already arrived at my goal, but I press on to take hold of that for which Christ Jesus took hold of me. 13 Brothers and sisters, I do not consider myself yet to have taken hold of it. But one thing I do: Forgetting what is behind and straining toward what is ahead, 14 I press on toward the goal to win the prize for which God has called me heavenward in Christ Jesus.
Following Paul’s Example
15 All of us, then, who are mature should take such a view of things. And if on some point you think differently, that too God will make clear to you. 16 Only let us live up to what we have already attained.
17 Join together in following my example, brothers and sisters, and just as you have us as a model, keep your eyes on those who live as we do. 18 For, as I have often told you before and now tell you again even with tears, many live as enemies of the cross of Christ. 19 Their destiny is destruction, their god is their stomach, and their glory is in their shame. Their mind is set on earthly things. 20 But our citizenship is in heaven. And we eagerly await a Savior from there, the Lord Jesus Christ, 21 who, by the power that enables him to bring everything under his control, will transform our lowly bodies so that they will be like his glorious body.
