FORWARD In Love - Friday January 18

For none of us lives to himself alone and none of us dies to himself alone.
Romans 14:7

Do you realize that we are spiritually responsible for other people? Wasn’t this the nature of Cain’s response to God when God asked him where his brother was? Cain said, “Am I my brother’s keeper?” The silent echo across the pages of time is “Yes”.
If I allow my relationship with God to grow cold, those closest to me will suffer; they may be influenced to do the same thing. If my prayer life suffers, someone else’s prayer life may suffer also as a result. If I neglect fellowship with other Christians, they will miss the encouragement I could have brought. The idea of American individualism is an overstatement. No one is that unconnected, no one that isolated. Each one of our lives impacts some group of people. When our spiritual heat cools, frigidness flows into those near us.
Are we willing to live under the tension and responsibility that someone else’s spiritual life is in some way dependant upon our own? Are we willing to be spent for God? Are we willing to be like Christ and be broken bread and poured out drink for Him?
Our lives as servants, as workers and as ministers is the way that we say “thank you” to God for His unspeakable love for us.