Welcome back, Marina Bromley

I know you’ll love this devotional as much as I. Marina shares some unique, convicting thoughts about attending church. God’s blessed her with wisdom.

Church

Marina Bromley, Marina’s Kitchen Table

Living in this area I’ve met many people with their own ideas of where they can go to “meet God” on the Sabbath, whether it’s to meet Him in a tree stand, meet Him at the river, or the general “meeting Him in a field.”

There are many reasons that people stop going to church altogether- feelings get hurt by others in the congregation, the pastor teaches something that convicts our hearts and offends us, or we push the “day of rest” command to the limit – yet don’t hesitate to run to the store!

As I’ve matured (as a person AND as a Christian) I’ve grown to love our time of “church”. But the seasons where I wasn’t so mature, ouch! It was hard to keep in perspective that the church is a hospital for sinners…not a place for saints. I’ve learned to realize that when worship isn’t exactly the way that I like it – then it’s my attitude that needs to change most of all! It’s not the job of the choir or worship team to be blessing me – but for ME to be blessing God with my “spiritual act of worship”.  We are fortunate to get to bring a “sacrifice of praise” to Him – no matter what style it’s done in or what songs are sung- it’s the attitude of my heart that determines the value of that sacrifice.

Then there’s the time of teaching…how many times I’ve thought “this lesson again?” or gripe about the lack of involvement of others to help out in needed areas of ministry. What I needed to see was that as a maturing Christian MY OWN heart’s cry should have been to get out there and serve on His behalf, to be His hands and feet to the body of Christ (and those not yet in the fold); and to be praying for my minister/pastor/teacher every day through the week as he prepared his lessons. I also needed to pray for my heart, head, ears and eyes to be opened to receive whatever it was that I needed to learn from that lesson…to be willing to be changed by the Word of God; not for the Word to change everyone I knew BUT me!

Year’s back I read that we should not pray for someone else what we were not willing to let God change in ourselves, and we can all learn to live by this wisdom. “Change me!” has to be our battle cry, as we face spiritual warfare daily in our fallen world. God is so good to provide our “spiritual armor” of Ephesians 6:10 – 18 as we face the world; but to own it, or to hold it, is not enough, we have to USE it! We can then use the spiritual fruits of Galatians 5 as measuring tools to see how far we’re being changed to be more like Him.

So I challenge you, and me, this month – seek God where you may – but go to the church of your choice with an attitude of serving God by serving others. We have a Heavenly Father that loves us, and He wants to spend time with us, to hear from us, and change us – to be more like Him.

This post first appeared at marinaskitchentable.com

©2018 Marina Bromley, used with permission.