Strong Together

I traveled back in time this week. In my memories I was twelve years old again. My sister and I, along with two cousins, were squashed together in the back seat of the car. My aunt was driving and my mother was in the passenger seat. All four of us kids were excited as we made our way to go swimming at Lake Weir, Florida, USA. The skies were grey, but in Florida, it can pour rain one minute and spread bright sunshine the next. My aunt and mother had already informed us, if it rained we wouldn’t be swimming, because lightening could suddenly fill the sky and that was dangerous.

Our spirits were nervous as we drove along. Suddenly, I had an idea. Being the oldest I somehow came up with things the others willingly followed. I began to chant in a sing-song fashion, “rain, rain, go away, come again another day.” My sister and cousins joined in. We chanted this phrase over and over. Did the rain actually stop? Yes. Do I believe our chanting shut the clouds? No, but I remember the hope that filled us. The more we repeated the words, faith grew. In this instance, it was mere coincidence the rain stopped so we could go swimming, but is there a spiritual lesson in this? Oh, yes.

There are two verses in Hebrews 10:24-25 that remind me of our chanting in the car experience. “Let us think of ways to motivate one another to acts of love and good works. And let us not neglect our meeting together, as some people do, but encourage one another, especially now that the day of His return is drawing near.” These are challenging and troubling days around the world. The signs of the nearness of Christ’s return is upon us. These are days when the enemy, Satan, seeks to instill fear and doubt. As brothers and sisters in Christ, in the midst of weather disasters, wars and rumors of war, it’s a time to remind each other, over and over again, to take our courage from God’s love letter to us — His Word. It is without error. As we know from II Timothy 3:16, “All Scripture is inspired by God and is useful to teach us what is true and to make us realize what is wrong in our lives. It corrects us when we are wrong and teaches us to do right.”

Many of you have experienced, as have I, encouragements when we meet with brothers and sisters in the Lord, sharing together God’s truths, over and over again. When we praise repeatedly, share testimony repeatedly, learn from Scripture repeatedly, we sense hope build within us, and faith rise that is unconquerable, standing strong against attacks from the enemy. It is of great importance that we meet together, worship and learn together. Together, with Christ in the middle, we are strong. When we repeat together the truths of God’s love for us, rains of fear subside; we swim in His peace instead.