The Community of Christ

"8Let me say first of all that your faith in God is becoming known throughout the world. How I thank God through Jesus Christ for each one of you. 9God knows how often I pray for you. Day and night I bring you and your needs in prayer to God, whom I serve with all my heart F2 by telling others the Good News about his Son.
10One of the things I always pray for is the opportunity, God willing, to come at last to see you. 11For I long to visit you so I can share a spiritual blessing with you that will help you grow strong in the Lord. 12I'm eager to encourage you in your faith, but I also want to be encouraged by yours. In this way, each of us will be a blessing to the other." Romans 1: 8-12

I was reading this passage in Romans tonight and I was struck with a familiarity of the feelings Paul was expressing in this passage when he wrote it. He was talking about longing for an opportunity to go visit this group of people because he wanted to be able to encourage them and in return be encouraged by them spiritually.
A couple of months ago, I wrote a blog about the power of community. When I wrote that blog, I talked about how people desire to be known and to know each other. But I think another great benefit of community is the encouragement it provides. To get together with a group of people that share things in common, to share goals, to share beliefs and to be able to spur one another on in life... well that is a great thing.
I am incredibly fortunate to be part of an amazing small group based out of my church. Every Sunday night we get together and hang out and discuss our faith in God and what God is doing in our lives, what He is teaching us. And every Sunday night when I leave, I leave energized and pumped up because of the things I hear my friends telling me. It excites me to hear what God is doing in their lives. It makes me look forward to seeing what God has in store for me too. It encourages me to dig deeper in the Word of God and to hear what He wants to say to me.
I think that is exactly what Paul was talking about in this passage of scripture. Even a great man of faith like Paul needed encouragement from other believers. The things that we go through from day to day can really weigh us down and to be able to get together with people who want to see God move in your life is like a breath of fresh air. We need that. We desperately need encouragement in our lives.
If you are reading this and you aren't experiencing this in your life, ask God to send you a group of people to encourage you spiritually, whether it is through a small group or something else. We need to spur each other on, to rally around each other, to hold each other's arms up when we get tired. That is the beauty of the community of Christ.