Faith Filled Family Magazine December 2016 | Page 50

should not feel guilty or inferior that it is unrealistic of us to exif we do not have a host of close pect everyone else to build and
maintain relationship with us. As
friends.
a dear friend once reminded me,
The hands and the feet on the Proverbs 18:24 says that a man
human body are distant from who has friends must himself be
each other, and they are both friendly.
part of body. In contrast, the fingers are a part of the hand. I con- If I may be completely honest:
sider past relationships to be like as Christians, at times we hold
the hands and feet- we are both each other to unreachable stanstill a part of the body, however dards. We come to church and
we interact less than we used to. oftentimes we expect everyone
Current relationships are like the to be cheery and to approach us,
fingers and the hand because whether we present ourselves
approachable or not. Meanwhile
we interact constantly.
we forget that others may be facRegardless of what member of ing familiar challenges such as
the body we are, it is imperative job loss, broken marriages, rethat we are indeed connected to jection, betrayal, illness, stress,
the body of Christ. We must build or emotional instability. When we
healthy relationships with those place the responsibility of friendin our local church. And yes, it is ship on everyone else, we set
a two-way street; which means ourselves up for failure. I tried it
for years and I ended up lonely
and feeling rejected.
I say this only to encourage you
to be the one to take the first step
toward a new friendship. Have
a conversation with that person
that sits alone every Sunday.
Instead of using our energy to
focus on the people that have
not spoken to us or invited us to
lunch, let’s become the one to
engage others and invite someone for coffee. We must be intentional about building relationships within the body of Christ,
because it is within these relationships that we grow.

every member is to the body.
If the body of Christ was united
and engaged, imagine the magnified influence we would have in
society, in politics, and in the media realms alone. If every member of the body of Christ voted
according to biblical values it is
likely that prayer would still be
in schools, abortion would not
be legal, and the LGBT agenda would not be prominent. We
should not want influence for the
sake of power; we should want
influence for the sake of sharing the truth and love of Jesus
Christ.
In Matthew 5:14, Jesus tells us
that we are the light of the world.
In Matthew 5:16, Jesus explains
that we are to let our light so
shine before men, that they may
see our good works, and glorify
our Father in heaven. One light
can only infiltrate so much darkness. As my light joins with your
light, together we can illuminate
more. When we all join together by building healthy relationships within the body of Christ,
our lights shine brighter as we
remove the dross from our lives
by embracing accountability,
and the light and influence of the
body of Christ grows stronger
and more compelling.

Remaliah Evans is an administrator by day and future best-selling author by night. She enjoys
A body does not operate to its encouraging others, teaching,
full potential when parts are serving at Life Builder Seminars,
missing. Members of the body and cheesy jokes. Remaliah
feel the burden when a member prays that you have a peaceful
or several members of the body and joyous Christmas as God’s
are missing or inoperable. The love, hope, and goodness overproblem is that, as a church, we flows in your life and family. Mertend be unaware of how crucial ry Christmas!