How Good and Pleasant It Is!
This devotion is provided by WELS Congregational Services.
How good and pleasant it is
when God’s people live together in unity!Psalm 133:1
It is a beautiful thing when everyone works together and is unified. We are more joyful, more supported, more productive, and we love one another. Getting to this peaceful place and maintaining it can be difficult. There are so many personalities in a congregation, so many opinions on the best way to do things or plan for the future. Everyone is so busy!
Jesus knew the struggle. He battled division among his own disciples as they argued about who was greatest. There was the time Mrs. Zebedee asked for her sons, James and John, to sit on thrones on either side of Jesus relegating the rest of the disciples to folding chairs. They were indignant.
So, what brings cohesiveness? Only God’s grace in Jesus Christ can accomplish unity among us. At one time we were all strangers, foreigners outside the kingdom of God. Jesus brought us into his kingdom through his selfless, innocent suffering and death in our place, paying the penalty of our self-centeredness, arrogance, and hard hearts. God has forgiven us because of Jesus and only because of him. The Word brings us the unity that comes from God’s grace. We put aside our agendas, our self-centeredness, our need to be first, and we learn from our Savior to love one another according to his Word. As we grow together into a cohesive unit around his Word, we seek to bring others in as well.
Jesus told his disciples the world would know they were his if they loved one another. People notice it when they walk into church—they can sense the love or lack of it. How important God’s grace is! Hold to his Word. Love one another. As you seek to be hospitable to others, they’ll recognize, “How good and pleasant it is.”
May God use unity to open doors for his Word and his love in Christ.