The Discovery: Exploring God’s Call On Your Life Sample

“The Responsibility: How can I encourage the Body?” Your responsibility to the Body of Christ goes beyond your ability to carry out your assignment without malfunction. You are also responsible for serving and lifting up other members of the Body, putting them before yourself. You cannot carry out fully your responsibility to the Body of Christ if you remove yourself from the church. If your assignment requires you to carry out much of your ministry outside the walls of the church, be careful that you don’t allow yourself to drift away from relationships within the church. If you do, you will not only deny others the support that God intends for them to receive from you, but you will also deny yourself the same support, the kind that can only be given by other believers who are simultaneously carrying out their own assignments and earnestly seeking God’s direction in their lives. Some might argue that it is more important to build relationships with the lost. Building relationships with the lost is very important, but doing so creates spiritual tension in the life of a believer. We all struggle with our sin nature, doing our best to keep it in check. The spiritual pull toward the desires of our sin nature that comes from contact with the secular world must be counteracted with a lifeline relationship with other believers (Ecclesiastes 4:12) if we are to survive and carry out our assignments successfully and without malfunction. When you don’t feel much like attending church, remember that attendance is not about what you get out of church, but what you give to it. Respond to the following in your journal: Do you ever struggle to maintain relationships within the Body? Why or why not? Are you a lifeline to other believers? How can you improve? How were you encouraged through Bible study today? How were you challenged?