Encouraging the Hands and Feet

Being cold to me is like being stuck in a horrible, endless torture.  Once my extremities get cold, I have the hardest time warming them up.  Fingers, a toe…  if they are cold, I am miserable for hours on end, my entire body begins to chill.  My husband laughs at me because I sleep in sweat pants, socks a t-shirt and then wrap myself in my snuggie (yes I have one!) and then put my sheet, blanket and comforter over me.  Meanwhile, my husband sleeps in shorts and a t-shirt and possibly the sheet, blanket and comforter and is perfectly comfortable all night long.  Usually, the snuggie will end up piled up next to my bed, but to get to sleep comfortably, it is imperative for me to be warm. 

A dear friend to me was saying how immoral our world has become.  The world is materialistic and focused on the wrong things.  You only have to turn the television on for a few moments during “prime time” to see a commercial that will most likely offend you.  As I read that, I began to think about my body in general. 

If my fingers get cold, that makes my arms cold, which makes my torso cold, which makes everything shiver!  How much more is it with the body of Christ?  How is it when we allow the “fingers” of the body of Christ to get cold, that it affects everything around us?  When the fingers or feet are out in the world working, it is easy to get caught up and get “cold” so we need to encourage those out there working, to warm them up.  To keep them warm.  We need to make sure the people that are the hands and feet of the church are getting encouragement, love, support and circulation flowing though the body of Christ so that they don’t get cold in the world.  They don’t get caught up in the world, they don’t get to the point where they can’t function. 

1 Corinthians 12

¹² Just as a body, though one, has many parts, but all its many parts form one body, so it is with Christ. ¹³ For we were all baptized by^[c] one Spirit so as to form one body—whether Jews or Gentiles, slave or free—and we were all given the one Spirit to drink. ¹⁴ Even so the body is not made up of one part but of many.

¹⁵ Now if the foot should say, “Because I am not a hand, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁶ And if the ear should say, “Because I am not an eye, I do not belong to the body,” it would not for that reason stop being part of the body. ¹⁷ If the whole body were an eye, where would the sense of hearing be? If the whole body were an ear, where would the sense of smell be? ¹⁸ But in fact God has placed the parts in the body, every one of them, just as he wanted them to be. ¹⁹ If they were all one part, where would the body be? ²⁰ As it is, there are many parts, but one body.

²¹ The eye cannot say to the hand, “I don’t need you!” And the head cannot say to the feet, “I don’t need you!” ²² On the contrary, those parts of the body that seem to be weaker are indispensable, ²³ and the parts that we think are less honorable we treat with special honor. And the parts that are unpresentable are treated with special modesty, ²⁴ while our presentable parts need no special treatment. But God has put the body together, giving greater honor to the parts that lacked it, ²⁵ so that there should be no division in the body, but that its parts should have equal concern for each other. ²⁶ If one part suffers, every part suffers with it; if one part is honored, every part rejoices with it.

²⁷ Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it.

 

Just because we are not the hand, or the ones out there doing the “heavy lifting” doesn’t mean that the body doesn’t support the hands…  Circulation in the body is imperative.  It keeps you comfortable and safe and healthy.  It is important that those that are not “called” to be pastors, teachers, missionaries etc…  are still working inside the church, working and supporting those that are called to do those things.  Supporting the hands and the feet and the legs and the heart and the lungs…  

Ways you can do this are by supporting missions, writing a letter to a pastor, or a friend that is involved in sharing the good news of Christ daily with their peers.  Encouraging, praying, loving on people will keep the circulation going and will keep the word being spread.  We are not all eyes, hands or feet, but the whole body is connected and we have to support our other parts.  So, with that said, please consider supporting pastors, missions, different ministries, etc…  whether financially, prayerfully or just through encouragement.  It is so vital to the functionality of the church