Role of Church Body in our Personal Struggles...
 

In prayer today, I told the Lord that I felt 'disappointed' and 'let down' by my church family...immediately, I was stricken with condemnation. After prayer, I began to analyze just WHAT is the role of the church, when it comes to our own personal struggles? After all, everyone has their own battles that they are warring with...the 'church' didn't cause my problems, overall- why should I expect the 'church' to help 'fix' ME???

Am I being selfish and unreasonable? Am I having a pity party??

Any thoughts on this?? Am I beating the proverbial 'dead horse' with this thread?? I hope not...I am really struggling right now with some things...

I personally think that we, as the church body, should encourage eachother......but for some of things i've been though, we didn't let the church family know....We didn't talk about our problems so many times the church was unaware....You have to remember that everyone is sooo busy and the other church members are probably thinking that the church is letting them down too because they , too, have struggles.
One of the beauties in serving the Lord: My husband and I went through a major trial and he couldn't find a job....We had nothing and he was up early in the morning praying and told God that we had food for breakfast and lunch for the day and that was it.....God had to work a miracle. We didn't tell anyone abou this...We trusted in God solely. A man in our church stopped by that afternoon with bags and bags of groceries and took us to his house for dinner that night. He said that on his way to work about 3-4 that morning, God told him to this for us!!! God has a way of providing....He will always help you when it seems no one else is. I could always count on God to speak to me when I was going through it....Many times when our Pastor would preach, he would preach right to us things that we had to God alone about. God knows how to handle us!!!! Be encouraged in the Lord....

[QUOTE=whollyHis;8062]In prayer today, I told the Lord that I felt 'disappointed' and 'let down' by my church family...immediately, I was stricken with condemnation. After prayer, I began to analyze just WHAT is the role of the church, when it comes to our own personal struggles? After all, everyone has their own battles that they are warring with...the 'church' didn't cause my problems, overall- why should I expect the 'church' to help 'fix' ME???

Am I being selfish and unreasonable? Am I having a pity party??

Any thoughts on this?? Am I beating the proverbial 'dead horse' with this thread?? I hope not...I am really struggling right now with some things...[/QUOTE]

btw...we really can't judge you on this because we have no clue where you are coming from.......some will say you are whining, some will say you need to talk to people....some will say take it to God....talk to your pastor......all of the usual.....all of the above....none of the above!lol

Thanks for taking the time to reply to my apparent rhetorical thread, Sis...
I realize there are no 'pat' answers to this question, and that each situation is different...


Christ is the answer...

:ty

Yes, you are being selfish and unreasonable to think you have the right to demand that the Church help "fix" you. HOWEVER, the scripture does command each of us to bear one another's burdens. Now, what exactly that means I'm not sure.

We have to realize "the church" is made up of individual people. The support you are going to receive is based largely on your personal relationships with the individuals that make up the church.

If you have close relationships with people who attend your church, reach out to them. Let them know you need help. If you don't have relationships, try to start building some today. From my experience, most people are more than willing to help, IF you've reached out to them. Don't assume even if they are aware you're struggling that they know you need help. Often times, people don't want to intrude into someone's personal life, without being invited in.

Remember, when people fail, "His strength is made perfect in our weakness."

very good......!!

Often (not always) what happens with people who complain that the Church is not meeting their needs (including the need to be "fixed" or whatever) is that these people just sit back and expect everyone else to make the effort. They get upset because no one came to talk to them or to invite them to participate in this or that activity and, yet, they don't put forth the effort to talk to others or to invite others. I'm not saying that's the case with the original poster but I do know people in the church I attend that are like this. Along these lines, there are times when you do offer some of these people help that they make all kinds of excuses as to why what you're telling them won't work or why their situation is somehow different or somehow exempt from the commands of God's word.

Thank you, Chan...
I can see clearly now, the rain is gone...

Your posts have helped me make a decision...one that I have been struggling with for over a year now. I'm sure that my Pastor will be rejoicing when he hears it....

Your posts have been such an uplift today...

Thanks...I think.

I'm not sure what I said that would be construed as uplifting.