<40 Days of Purpose - Day 20

Restoring Broken Fellowship

Half way through the Purpose Driven Life today and I am struck by how in every chapter there is something which challenges me. I am finding the journey a little gruelling as I have “discovery sin fatigue…” and now know why ignorance is such bliss!!

Do we have higher expectations of other Christians? Is it more difficult rather than less for us to resolve conflict within Christ’s family? I hang my head with shame when I think back to times of fellowship fallout with other believers. There have been occasions when I know I haven’t involved God in the disagreement. I just imagine sin, which is like a weed with a very strong root. You can try to remove the weed many times but until you dig deep enough and dig the root out the weed will come back quicker than you can imagine. I especially picture this image for the destructiveness when believers are not united about restoring fellowship. There are times for me when I think that I am still 8 or so in my maturity. Instead of taking the initiative as God intends irrespective of whether I have caused the relationship strain or not, I keep saying to God, well they started it!! Then I would bask in my self-righteousness unaware that I am cutting myself off from God by my behaviour.

One of the recurrent themes the PDL book has is that as a Believer I need to change continuously. There have been so many spiritual bad habits I have fallen into. I am thrilled that despite this, Jesus still loves me and doesn’t demand perfection but obedience. All I can say is that my sin alone must have caused Jesus so much pain on the cross and if he can do that for me, I will trust in him to change me to become an effective follower of His.

This week the words from a hymn by Fanny Crosby keep coming to mind:

“The vilest offender who truly believes that moment from Jesus a pardon receives.”