Doing Life...With God?

In our church we have many small groups that gather in homes to study the Bible and pray.  Over time, in flourishing groups there is a lot of sharing of personal issues, caring support among group members and resultant personal growth.  As many of you who read this know, we also do fun events together and go into the community to serve children or youth, or the homeless and other needy people.  We call all this “doing life together,” hence, the name:  Life Groups.

The life group model may be much closer to what church was actually like in the first century than the traditional, well-organized format in today’s typical church setting.  Yet, in spite of its seeming value and greater potential to foster authentic relationships and a deeper spiritual walk, I am aware that even life groups can fall short, degenerating into little more than social clubs or therapy groups.

The other day, as I was reading a book about how real Christianity ought to look, I thought about how we, in our life groups, are learning to do life together as small communities of believers.  But it occurred to me that we might not be learning how to do life with God on a personal level.  I wondered if we might get things out of balance (something I’ve found to be very easy to do and to be detrimental to our relationship with the Lord).  I mean, could we become more focused on how well we are functioning as a group than on how well each of us is growing in Christ?

Take the matter of prayer, for example.  How much of our praying is because we know we should pray vs. praying because we enjoy talking with our heavenly Father and believe that He will actually answer our prayers?  Be honest.  If we really believed that our praying made a difference and knew how much our Lord wants us to ask Him, we would pray a lot more often.  I admit it, I would.  (Notice, I’m underscoring frequency of prayer, not length!) 

Would God open up a parking place when I need to do an important errand?  Would He hold off the rain until I finish mowing the grass?  Would He send a needed missionary pilot to work in Papua New Guinea just because I asked?

There are moments when I am moved to pray in that way, but, frankly, I’m still learning and need the encouragement and example of others to grow in my trust of the Lord for everything and on a regular basis – not just for serious needs.

So what’s the answer to doing life together in a way that truly helps us do life better personally with the Lord?  I think it begins with an understanding that doing life together is God’s idea.  He does not intend for Christians to go it alone.  We will never grow that way.

When He created Adam, God said it was not good for man to be alone.  So, He invented the first small group, marriage, and expanded it into the family, the fundamental institution of humanity. It is through these that He desires to teach us intimacy, both with each other and with Him.  The Apostle Paul writes in Ephesians 5, teaching believers that the relationship of husband and wife is intended to be a picture of the relationship of Christ with His bride, the church.  It would seem, then, the extent to which we are willing to be accountable to each other about our walk with the Lord and to hold each other accountable will relate directly with how well we prosper in doing life with God.

One final thought.  Recently, the leader of the group that Sherril and I belong to quoted some great wisdom from a Christian leader that strikes home on this very issue.  He said that everyone needs to be in two mentoring relationships:  one in which we are mentoring someone and the other where someone is mentoring us.

But encourage one another day after day, as long as it is still called “Today,” lest any of you be hardened by the deceitfulness of sin…Therefore, confess your sins to one another, and pray for one another so that you may be healed. – Hebrews 3:13, James 5:16