IN TOUCH DEVOTIONAL 30TH MARCH 2024 BY DR. CHARLES STANLEY, SATURDAY MESSAGE
In Touch Devotional 30th March 2024 TOPIC: Following God Together
TODAY’S SCRIPTURE: Matthew 18:20
TODAY’S MESSAGE
Following Jesus is both a private and a group activity. Yes, God loves each of us, and we hear His call as individuals. So we need to make time to be alone with Him, as we saw yesterday. At the same time, we should remember that “it is not good for the man to be alone” (Genesis 2:18) applies to more than marriage. We must follow Jesus with others who have been similarly called.
We see this call to communal life repeated throughout the New Testament. “Bear one another’s burdens,” Paul writes to the Galatians, “and thereby fulfill the law of Christ” (Galatians 6:2). The writer of Hebrews urges gathering for mutual encouragement, especially in trying times (Hebrews 10:25). And in today’s passage, Jesus reminds us He will be present even when only “two or three have gathered in [His] name.”
All these instances reference koinonia, a Greek word usually translated “fellowship” in the Bible. It was Luke’s term for the healthy Christian community at the church’s founding (Acts 2:42). We are made for this kind of richly layered discipleship—with God and with fellow believers.
In a world filled with distractions, solitude is an essential Christian discipline. But so is the spiritual discipline of fellowship—that’s where we find the joy and presence God promises when we gather with our brothers and sisters in the Lord.
Bible in One Year: 1 Samuel 19-21
Thought for Today: Walking with other believers provides strength, encouragement, and growth.
Dr. Charles Stanley was the founder of In Touch Ministries and a New York Times best-selling author. Throughout his ministry, he demonstrated a keen awareness of people’s needs and provided Christ-centered biblically based principles for everyday life.