I have a personal testimony about attending church.
When I was a little girl and my mom was dating my dad (not my birth father), his sister told me how wonderful it was to go to church - so I wanted to go, too. My soon-to-be dad would pick me up and take me to church. I loved God then the way that a child loves.
After my mom and dad married, I had to go to church. My parents didn't regularly attend (in fact my mom didn't want to have anything to do with church), and by the time I was a teen, I hated it. At about age 13, I told my parents I didn't want to go and they couldn't make me.
God didn't let me go, and there was Christian influence in my life still. I eventually turned to God and entrusted my whole life to him, and I loved going to church because that’s where my friends were.
When I got pregnant (when I wasn't married) I found that a lot of the people in the church were hurtful. I was so hurt that I stopped going after I had my son and placed him for adoption. There were about 2 years where I didn't even think of setting foot in a church - until God started poking and prodding at my heart about the fact that I needed to start going to church again. To be honest, I thought, "God, why would I want to go to a building full of a bunch of hypocritical, back-stabbing, gossiping people who care more about their image than about you?" But he kept insisting, so I went.
At first I was reluctant and didn't really get involved. But I have since found that the reason why he insisted that I go is because I have received love and support in my church in a way that I never would have if I didn't belong to a body of believers. There are genuine people, with real hurts and problems (just like me) who are relational, and we rely on one another. Going to church keeps me accountable in my relationship with God and is a place where I can grow.
Our society today tends toward isolation and individualism, but we weren't created to be that way. And I think that's why God desires that we not give up meeting together.
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