This Thanksgiving, Gratitude for Your Church Family
As we begin Thanksgiving week with our church families today, let me commend you as passionately as I can to take time out both today and throughout this Thanksgiving to have, demonstrate, and express gratitude for your church family.
Friends, your church family is nothing less than God’s grace to you.
God graciously placed you into His family when you were saved. As a member of His family, the body of Christ, you enjoy immense benefits, including adoption, forgiveness, eternal life, and so many more.
When you began attending and subsequently joined your local church, God gave you another more intimate family than simply the body of Christ, He gave you the members of your local church as your church family. And, how amazing that is!
In a world of pandemics, pressures, and the need for progressive sanctification
We live in a world full of pressures. In the recent days, our local community have faced a small uptick in COVID cases again. Further, life brings with it many other circumstances where days are tough, emotions run high, and exhaustion is common. In these instances, God makes sure we are not alone. He never leaves us or forsakes us (Josh 1:7-9). He provides us His Word which is comprehensively sufficient to enable us to do everything we need to do to honor Him in every circumstance (1 Tim 3:16-17). In addition to both of these things, God provides us the family of God to walk with us as we go through these things.
As a pastor, I see the benefits of our local church family every day. This week with several families down for multiple reasons, I have watched our church family reach beyond themselves and serve each other so well. I marvel at the love that gets expressed in and among the church family. What a joy to see and experience!
What makes a church family so wonderfully important?
No doubt churches are full of sinners. As such, we all know stories of people who disappoint others, some who sin against Jesus and the church, and the imperfections along progressive sanctification lines. Of course we do. Why? Because the church is an imperfect family. We long for the future day when around the throne we will be perfect, but until then, we will continue doing our best even imperfectly.
Yet the imperfect church is not the primary story line. The local church family, who is part of the body of Christ, rocks. God provided us community together so that we love our Savior, each other, and our neighbors, learn the Word and wisdom, and live our faith out together.
God provides us almost 50 “one-another” commands through which we learn how to and grow in our love for each other. Our church family consists of those individuals who God brought together in a local place to practice loving God supremely and loving each other, our neighbors, and our community sincerely.
Again, nothing but God’s grace!
This Thanksgiving, Gratitude for Your Church Family
Three simple ideas as we get this Thanksgiving week started:
First, rejoice in gratitude this week for God’s grace in the form of your church family. Pray to God and thank Him for your church. Consider what the Bible says about the family of God and rejoice in it.
Second, if needed, recommit yourself to a fresh perspective on your church family. If you have struggled either with engagement or gratitude for your church family, then recommit yourself this week to gratitude for your church family. If there is any reason you have not been doing your part, then recommit to that this week as well. For sure, do not let ingratitude, lack of forgiveness, or embarrassment keep you from engaging well in your local family.
Third, praise God like you mean it while engaging with those around you in your church family. Do not praise God alone, invite someone else into your praise. If you need to be grateful or rejoice, do so! Offer a post, tweet, snap, or whatever thing you do to let others know of your gratitude. Serve someone. Send a card. Just do something.
This Thanksgiving, begin your week and maintain throughout it gratitude for your church family.
Image CreditDanny Little
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