As I sat among my ladies Precepts Bible study gals tonight I was amazed at the bonds that have been knit together over the years. Here sat teachers, nurses, secretaries, moms, students, youths, retirees, mature believers, and new converts; women from different denominations, walking through different seasons of life doing one and a half hours of life together every Monday night, united under the common banner of Jesus.

Over the years the Father has brought more ladies into our little group. Women once alone, alienated, isolated, abused, broken, sinful… you name it… women set apart, pulled apart, living apart.

But brought together!

It has come to my attention more and more over the last years how much Satan hates community. Especially the community of Christ. He loathes the strength we have in our numbers. He detests the fellowship available to us. Forget the symbolic vine and branches motif, the devil would like nothing more than to take a hacksaw to the entire tree… throwing us all, piece. by. individual. piece into a raging fire.

Satan wants us alone. He thrives in our isolation. He can stalk us better apart from everything and everyone else. Whether it be through depression, sickness, fatigue, hurt feelings, pride, work, or just plain busyness and laziness, he will use any and every excuse and arrow to keep us from each other. Satan desires us lonely, isolated, defenseless, and without help. His aim is to keep us apart.

Our Father wants the opposite. He wants us to be a part.

Oh, that beautiful space between!

In one supernatural tap of the divine spacebar, God radically changed the course and place of our lives. He’s made us A PART of something. He has given us family, fellowship, community, friends, church. He has inserted us into groups. He’s knitted us together into the Body of Christ. His will is that we thrive together, in biblical community with each other. Whether it be for encouragement, refinement, accountability, prayer, or even just a shoulder to cry on… we are designed to be a piece of the whole. We get to do life together! With people! What a wonderful thing to be a part of something so much bigger than ourselves; with a family united by the blood of Christ Himself pulsing through our bones, sinews, hands, feet, eyes, ears, hearts, and souls.

2 Corinthians 12:12, 14, 19-20 ESV
“For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ…. For the body does not consist of one member but of many…. If all were a single member, where would the body be? As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.”

You are a part of this incredible body dear ones. Fight for unity. Strive for oneness. Seek fellowship. Protect the weaker parts and pull back into the fold those who have been sliced off. Claim your part of the whole that He has placed you in.

“…But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.” 24-26 ESV

Thank God for giving us that space! The space to be one, to be family, to be a part of it all. From apart to a part. Amen!

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