Built Together to Serve

Welcome to today's encouragement from Our Daily Bread. The reading today titled Built Together to Serve was written by Kenneth Peterson. Lumber is stocked ahead of time.

Tools are prepped. On the designated day, the entire Amish community gathers early, divvies up tasks, and together pitches in to raise a barn, sometimes in a single day. This is a good picture of God's vision for the Church and our role in it. The Bible says in 1 Corinthians chapter 12, all of you together are Christ's body, and each of you is a part of it. God has equipped each of us differently and divvied up tasks in which we do our own special work as part of a body fit together perfectly. In community, we're encouraged to carry each other's burdens. But too often we go it alone. We keep our needs to ourselves, wanting control of our circumstance. Or we fail to reach out and help shoulder the weight of someone else's need. But God longs for us to connect with others. He knows beautiful things happen when we ask for others' help and pray for others' needs. Only by depending on one another can we experience what God has for us and accomplish his amazing plan for our lives, like building a barn in a day.

Today's Our Daily Bread devotional scripture reading is taken from 1 Corinthians chapter 12 verses 18 through 30. On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other.

If one part suffers, every part suffers with it. If one part is honored, every part rejoices with it. Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it. And God has placed in the church first of all apostles, second prophets, third teachers, then miracles, then gifts of healing, of helping, of guidance, and of different kinds of tongues. Are all apostles? Are all prophets?

Are all teachers? Do all work miracles? Do all have gifts of healing? Do all speak in tongues?

Do all interpret? Now let's pray. Lord, sometimes we can be so private that we close others out of our lives thinking that we can go it alone without help. Would you help us to see our need for others and to open up and invite them into our lives? It is in Jesus' name that we pray. Amen. Hey, thanks for listening today. My name is Wes Ward, and today's encouragement was provided by Our Daily Bread Ministries.