Monday 30 Jul 2012

Monday Reading: Ecclesiastes 4:9-12

Key Verse: Ecclesiastes 4:9
9  Two are better than one; because they have a good reward for their labour.

Devotion:
We don’t have to read very far in our bibles to find out that God created us to have companions. He created man and He created woman, to live together and to be companions. God knew that man would sin and yet He still created us the perfect partners so that we would not have to work alone. He knew that we would end up facing toil and hardship outside of the garden of Eden and what better companions that to have each other after we had been separated from our God?

These verses follow on from Solomon showing how covetousness and solitariness go hand in hand when God is left out of the equation. Instead, as described here, a social life has great advantages and it is not just the social life of people with people but also the social aspect we have when we gather together as Christians to worship our God. God saw it necessary for man not to be alone (Genesis 2:18) when He said that He would make man a help meet or companion. Having a society instead of a bunch of people trying to get one ahead of each other has got to be a whole lot better for all of us. There are very few cases where a person would go out alone instead God always encouraged man to be with companions so that they would always have support in some shape or another.

As I have grown in my Christian walk I have found this to be so true; being able to pray with others, to study with others and to grow in Christ with others is so much more rewarding that anything that this world can give me. It is not always going to be the good times that we share either because we will face some pretty grim times, and it is when we have a companion or friends around us that we will find it so much easier to bear.

God wants us to be able to share our lives because through sharing we learn to trust and to grow together. We can support each other, reward each other, learn with each other and share our burdens with each other. When we are together with other Christians we then find that we share so much more because we know that peace that Christ shows us. It is also that when we are together as Christians that we can be sure that Christ is with us… And then of course there is the pleasure that we will have just by being in each other’s company! We should never be able to find a greater love than the love we should have for Christ; but Christ’s love for us goes far beyond any love that we can have for Him. To grow that love we do need companionship so that we can nurture it rather than become jealous that we cannot find that love.

Points to Ponder:
Do you have special people in your life?

Is Christ on the top of that list?