Depending on Each Other

God has showed me big time how His children are interdependent on each other and how our actions have a ripple effect upon others. I want to share a story with you. There were two brothers in Christ and they had a good fellowship for a while. God had been speaking powerfully through this ministering brother and thus helping ministering to the learning brother who was continuously learning. At times, the learning brother would speak something but didn’t realize it came from God. This spoken word also helped the ministering brother!! One day, the ministering brother was in a serious trouble. The landlord was going to evict him and his family. He tried everything to avoid being evicted, and had no one to ask for help. But God finally put the learning brother onto his heart, so the ministering brother hesitantly asked the learning brother to help them make the rent payment. The learning brother, out of compassion and love, decided to help the ministering brother out. I thought this was a good example of how when one member has a lack and those who have enough are able to help. This can work both ways for all of us have different gifting, supplies, personality, etc…

Maybe one person isn’t good at speaking with people for spreading God’s word, but is really good at showing hospitality and helping others. Or maybe someone is really good at praying for others but not skilled with giving. That’s okay! Everyone has a different role to play!! And also there’s always a room for growth/improvement in our weakness. In other word, we could keep on practicing what we’re not good at. The main thing is that we allow Christ’s LOVE to grow within us and to be able allow that to shine for others to see. We are the living witness to Christ’s LOVE and hope to be that light for other people to see. I pray that we are able to bring people to Christ through our actions and varied gifts. If you’re not sure what kind of gift you have, you can always ask God about it =) and you can also ask God to give you spiritual gifts if you desire so!!

I wanted to share this powerful phrase with you –

I believe humility allows you to open up your heart more so you can receive more love from others and God.

Think about what this means in practical sense.

First, let’s look at it from opposite angle.
Pride says, “I don’t need anyone. I am my own man. I don’t need handouts or help from anyone else, if anything I will be the one helping others.” Even the intention is to do good (helping others, etc..), the intention is still infected with prideful thinking. Pride focuses on protecting their own dignity, their own image. By not accepting help from anyone, they are denying others the opportunity to share their love.

Yet when we open up our vulnerability and heart to others, we are allowing others the OPPORTUNITY to pour their love into our hearts. I realize not all will pour love, but at least we open up for those who want to share their love!

Seeing how interdependent we can be, we must also be aware how our actions can have a ripple effect on others, for either better or worse. It does have an impact beyond what we can see! Even the smallest action. Consider the story of two brothers I just mentioned a little bit earlier. The ministering brother was humbled and felt an incredible sense of love/support from the learning brother for the love of Christ was shining through him. It made an impact on both of the brothers for they learned from the whole experience and allowed God’s love to grow more within themselves! I realize being the imperfect being we are, we won’t always succeed in doing good. But remember, what is impossible with man is possible with God. So then, having the love of Christ in our hearts, we hope to allow it shine brightly for others to see and to share His love boldly.

1 Corinthians 12:4-26 (ESV)
⁴ Now there are varieties of gifts, but the same Spirit; ⁵ and there are varieties of service, but the same Lord; ⁶ and there are varieties of activities, but it is the same God who empowers them all in everyone. ⁷ To each is given the manifestation of the Spirit for the common good. ⁸ For to one is given through the Spirit the utterance of wisdom, and to another the utterance of knowledge according to the same Spirit, ⁹ to another faith by the same Spirit, to another gifts of healing by the one Spirit, ¹⁰ to another the working of miracles, to another prophecy, to another the ability to distinguish between spirits, to another various kinds of tongues, to another the interpretation of tongues. ¹¹ All these are empowered by one and the same Spirit, who apportions to each one individually as he wills.

¹² For just as the body is one and has many members, and all the members of the body, though many, are one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For in one Spirit we were all baptized into one body—Jews or Greeks, slaves or free—and all were made to drink of one Spirit.

¹⁴ For the body does not consist of one member but of many. ¹⁵ If the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” that would not make it any less a part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would be the sense of hearing? If the whole body were an ear, where would be the sense of smell? ¹⁸ But as it is, God arranged the members in the body, each one of them, as he chose. ¹⁹ If all were a single member, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, yet one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I have no need of you,” nor again the head to the feet, “I have no need of you.” ²² On the contrary, the parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and on those parts of the body that we think less honorable we bestow the greater honor, and our unpresentable parts are treated with greater modesty, ²⁴ which our more presentable parts do not require. But God has so composed the body, giving greater honor to the part that lacked it, ²⁵ that there may be no division in the body, but that the members may have the same care for one another. ²⁶ If one member suffers, all suffer together; if one member is honored, all rejoice together.

Genesis 2:18-24 (ESV)
¹⁸ Then the Lord God said, “It is not good that the man should be alone; I will make him a helper fit for him.” ¹⁹ Now out of the ground the Lord God had formed every beast of the field and every bird of the heavens and brought them to the man to see what he would call them. And whatever the man called every living creature, that was its name. ²⁰ The man gave names to all livestock and to the birds of the heavens and to every beast of the field. But for Adam there was not found a helper fit for him. ²¹ So the Lord God caused a deep sleep to fall upon the man, and while he slept took one of his ribs and closed up its place with flesh. ²² And the rib that the Lord God had taken from the man he made into a woman and brought her to the man. ²³ Then the man said,

“This at last is bone of my bones
    and flesh of my flesh;
she shall be called Woman,
    because she was taken out of Man.”

²⁴ Therefore a man shall leave his father and his mother and hold fast to his wife, and they shall become one flesh.