Gathering around each other.

Reading: 2 Kings 22, 2 Chronicles 34, and Acts 14

Scripture: Acts 14:20, But when the disciples gathered about him, he rose up and entered the city, and on the next day he went on with Barnabas to Derbe.

Thoughts: We so often get beaten down by this world, be it for our faith or just because we live in a fallen world that is striving blindly toward the gates of Hell. Paul after being stoned to death, got up and went back into the city but only after the disciples gathered around him. When we are attacked and beaten down, do we have a community that will come together, gather around us to call us back to life. Even though this passage does not say that these disciples were praying over him, but I believe that these disciples were praying over him until he rose. We need our community to gather around us. We most likely are not the solution to the situation and as a man that is a struggle because it is in my nature to fix things, but we are called to be in that foxhole with those are currently in a battle. We are all always at war but each day and each season there are different battles being waged. Right now, I feel there is a battle and war waging over marriage and family and when there is someone in your community being attacked, we need to get into that foxhole with them and declare victory in the name of Jesus. We are overcomers, it will not be easy, but we know who wins the war, we are to walk out this victory, putting on the full armor of God daily. 

Prayer: Father God, I thank you for all you are working in my life, I thank you for the abilities that you have given me to get me where I am today, I thank you for the community that I have and the men who gather around me in my struggles. I ask that you help me to gather around those who are struggling that  we can overcome these battles together.