January 21 - Sharing Is Caring
“All the believers met together constantly and shared everything with each other.” (Acts 2:44)
Devotional Thought: We’ve already learned this week that God wants us to be a part of His family, and He wants us to belong to a Church family. And in our Church family the Lord wants us to learn how to share with others. Good parents want their children to learn how to share with others, and God wants His children to learn how to share with others as well. So, what are we to share with others?
To begin with, we need to learn how to share our experiences with others. Proverbs 27:17 says, “As iron sharpens iron, so a friend sharpens a friend.” Another translation says, “People learn from one another just as iron sharpens iron.” Have you heard the phrase, “It’s wise to learn from experience”? It is wiser to learn from the experiences of others. Learning by trial and error is a very difficult and painful way to live. And if we have to learn everything in life by personally experiencing it, by the time we learn everything we need to know we’ll be dead. So the fast track to maturity is to learn from the experiences of others. That’s why the Bible says that we are to get together in the family of God and share our experiences with others. The truth is everybody’s ignorant, just on different subjects. We all know things that others don’t know. And others know some things we don’t know. But if we get together we’ll learn from each other. Sharing experiences with others helps us to grow, and helps them to grow.
We also need to learn how to share our problems with others. Galatians 6:2 says, “Share each other’s troubles and problems.” We aren’t meant to go through life on our own. The Bible says we are to weep with those who weep and rejoice with those who rejoice. Sometimes in a small group people laugh and rejoice together. And sometimes they shed some tears as they hear what others are going through. But that’s a part of being a member of God’s family. We’re to help each other through our problems. Now, God doesn’t expect us to fix other people’s problems. But the Bible does say to share them. That means we are to lend a listening ear to others. Sometimes people just need sympathy. And then we need to pray with them and for them.
Where can we spend time learning from other people and sharing with others what we’ve learned in life? In a Life Group. And where can we help other people with their problems and receive help for our problems? In a Life Group. So being a part of a Life Group is an integral part of learning how to share life with other members of God’s family like the Bible instructs us to do.
Prayer Focus: Lord, help me learn how to really share my life with other Christians through sharing my experiences and through helping people bear their problems because doing so will help me and others become stronger. In the name of Jesus. Amen.
