Why is Church Unfulfilling for so many?

We received a packet from Shaohannah's Hope the other day. It has a 14 day devotion along with other information in it. I thought I would share day 3 of the devotion.

Day 3: Why is Church Unfulfilling for so many?
By Kerry Hasenbalg

" As the body without the spirit is dead, so faith without deeds is dead." James 2:26

In much of the American church today there is a sense of ineffectiveness and lack of fulfillment, particularly among the youth, and I believe this is due in large part to how many of us have missed a major ingredient of Biblical Christianity: caring for the Least.

Throughout Scripture and throughout the history of His people, God has called His chosen ones to spend themselves on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan, the widow, the prisoner, and the stranger in the land. Because many in the church have turned inward, ignored the outworking of their faith, and have forgotten the poor and needy, our knowledge of God is to a large extent merely intellectual, and hence our faiths often appear more dead than alive. This certainly is not true of every church, every believer, or every mission, but it is true enough because it was true of me.

I was afraid to be like those who were trying to earn their way to heaven with good works because I rightly knew that salvation is by God's grace through faith alone. But out of this fear, I, like many others, stopped working all together. Somewhere along the line, I unconsciously began living a lie that says learning about God, singing about God, and speaking about God is more important than walking like him.

Like so many well-intentioned Christians before me, I had thought I could live out my Christianity in church buildings, in Bible studies, and among friends. I had anticipated a comfortable future of growing and learning and discussing and growing some more. But as I took small steps of obedience, God kept leading me into the fields of the fatherless and the widow, the needy and the marginalized.

The call to follow Christ and the path of the crucified life is difficult, requiring self-sacrifice and obedience, and caring for the Least, God has given us a social context in which to live out these truths and walk in His love. Much of the evangelical church is longing for a deeper experience of God, and the irony is that it is among those we too often ignore and avoid- the orphans, widows, poor, sick, and oppressed- where God said he would be. There we will experience Him, see Him, touch Him, and walk with Him.

Are there people around me who are ignored or forgotten that I can love today? "

As I read this, I was really touched by the phrase where she said, " God has called His chosen ones to spend themselves on behalf of the poor, the oppressed, the orphan, the widow, the prisoner, and the stranger in the land." This idea of spending ourselves is really something we as Christ followers ought to ponder daily. Are we willing to "spend" our lives for someone else, perhaps who we may not even know? I think in this spending we will find ourselves, and truly have the joy and the peace and the fulfillment that God intends for us to truly have.

How about you?