Who Is Looking Out For You?

Woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.
–Ecclesiastes 4:10

Over the years, I have found that Satan’s favorite tactic for discouraging and destroying Christians is to isolate us from other believers and then attack us. That is why he will do everything he can to keep Christians from joining a church or to dislodge us from a church.

But there is strength in numbers. One of the benefits of church membership is that the local church provides encouragement when we become discouraged. Solomon said in Ecclesiastes 4:9-10, “Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up.” Woe to the Christian who goes through the hardships of life without anyone to lift him up. The passage continues, “If one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart” (v. 12). The more believers who are bound together, the harder it is for Satan to isolate those Christians and destroy them.

When you are in a fellowship of believers, not only can they pray for you when you are going through a difficult time, but they can offer you an encouraging word, give you spiritual perspective, and remind you that other Christians are also going through this. We do not get any of that if we are isolated from other believers.

The church also offers accountability when we wander from the faith. Years ago, Bill O’Reilly wrote a best-selling book called “Who’s Looking Out for You?” The idea was that he was looking out for you as he held government officials accountable for their actions. But Bill would be the first to admit his ability to look out for you and me was severely limited. In his New York studio, he had no way of knowing whether you or I were faithful to our mates, whether we were holding on to bitterness instead of forgiving, or whether we were growing stale in our relationship with God.

Fortunately, God has provided somebody to hold you accountable, and it is your local church. Hebrews 13:17 says, “Obey your leaders and submit to them, for they keep watch over your souls as those who will give an account.” Ideally, in a local church, godly leaders and members link arms to provide a spiritual fence around your life that will keep you from wandering from God’s field into Satan’s field. That is something you do not get when you are apart from a local church. Church membership provides encouragement as well as accountability.

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Today’s devotion is excerpted from “Good-Grace Churches” by Dr. Robert Jeffress, 2020.

Scripture quotations taken from the (NASB®) New American Standard Bible®, Copyright © 1960, 1971, 1977, 1995 by The Lockman Foundation. Used by permission. All rights reserved. www.lockman.org