Sound Mind Set Kindred Resources / SPS

Today, our Scripture is taken from Romans 15:1-13 … We who are strong must be considerate of those who are sensitive …. We must not just please ourselves. We should help others do what is right and build them up in the Lord. For even Christ didn’t live to please himself. … May God, who gives this patience and encouragement, help you live in complete harmony with each other, as is fitting for followers of Christ Jesus. Then all of you can join together with one voice, giving praise and glory to God, the Father of our Lord Jesus Christ. Therefore, accept each other just as Christ has accepted you so that God will be given glory. … I pray that God, the source of hope, will fill you completely with joy and peace because you trust in him. Then you will overflow with confident hope through the power of the Holy Spirit. (NLT) Isn’t it interesting that no matter how much we have been hurt, how much we distrust, how guarded we may try to be, when we take our eyes off ourselves and fully focus on meeting someone else’s needs, somehow the world seems right for a few minutes?

That’s because we weren’t designed to be hurt or to hurt, but to help, to serve. We weren’t designed to distrust, but to trust. We weren’t designed to focus on our own needs, but to help others.

When we choose to live in community the way this week’s Scripture passages have encouraged us to do, we line up with our original design because Christ offers that opportunity.

Listen to this passage in The Message Bible … Those of us who are strong and able in the faith need to step in and lend a hand to those who falter, and not just do what is most convenient for us. Strength is for service, not status. Each one of us needs to look after the good of the people around us, asking ourselves, “How can I help?” That’s exactly what Jesus did. He didn’t make it easy for himself by avoiding people’s troubles, but waded right in and helped out. … God wants the combination of his steady, constant calling and warm, personal counsel in Scripture to come to characterize us, keeping us alert for whatever he will do next. May our dependably steady and warmly personal God develop maturity in you so that you get along with each other as well as Jesus gets along with us all. Then we’ll be a choir—not our voices only, but our very lives singing in harmony in a stunning anthem to the God and Father of our Master Jesus! So reach out and welcome one another to God’s glory. Jesus did it; now you do it! … May the God of hope fill you up with joy, fill you up with peace, so that your believing lives, filled with the life-giving energy of the Holy Spirit, will brim over with hope!

In your community, where do you need to step in and lend a hand?

Who do you need to ask, “How can I help?”

Where does your life need to sing in harmony with others in an anthem for God’s glory?

Let’s pray together: “Heavenly Father, help me to expand my community to who I need and who needs me. Help me to receive the help I need while giving my help to whom it’s needed. Help me to find harmony with those You want me to worship with. As above, so below.”

Today, our Scripture is 1 Peter 4:8-13 … Most important of all, continue to show deep love for each other, for love covers a multitude of sins. Cheerfully share your home with those who need a meal or a place to stay. God has given each of you a gift from his great variety of spiritual gifts. Use them well to serve one another. Do you have the gift of speaking? Then speak as though God himself were speaking through you. Do you have the gift of helping others? Do it with all the strength and energy that God supplies. Then everything you do will bring glory to God through Jesus Christ. All glory and power to him forever and ever! Amen. Dear friends, don’t be surprised at the fiery trials you are going through, as if something strange were happening to you. Instead, be very glad—for these trials make you partners with Christ in his suffering, so that you will have the wonderful joy of seeing his glory when it is revealed to all the world. (NLT) What gifts do you see in your life that you know God uses?

What service do you do that you just feel the presence of God when You are involved in it? It just feels peaceful to you, almost as if you can sense God smiling?

What do you do that you can tell impacts others even more than it affects you?

Listen once again to today’s passage in The Message Bible … Everything in the world is about to be wrapped up, so take nothing for granted. Stay wide-awake in prayer. Most of all, love each other as if your life depended on it. Love makes up for practically anything. Be quick to give a meal to the hungry, a bed to the homeless—cheerfully. Be generous with the different things God gave you, passing them around so all get in on it: if words, let it be God’s words; if help, let it be God’s hearty help. That way, God’s bright presence will be evident in everything through Jesus, and he’ll get all the credit as the One mighty in everything—encores to the end of time. Oh, yes! Friends, when life gets really difficult, don’t jump to the conclusion that God isn’t on the job. Instead, be glad that you are in the very thick of what Christ experienced. This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

Did you catch the phrase: “Love each other as if your life depended on it.”? Who do you love like that? Who needs you to love them like that?

Who needs your words? Who needs your “hearty help”? Who needs some of God’s bright presence in their life with you being the one who delivers it?

Our community will be made up of those who love us, but also those we need to love.

Like the last verse said: This is a spiritual refining process, with glory just around the corner.

Let’s pray together: “Father, from the love I give to the trials I walk through, help me to reflect Your presence. Help me to love like my life depends on it—just like You do. As above, so below.”