I am wrestling with the idea of fellowship. It is something I have always struggled with. I am fiercely independent, and I do not make friends easily. I sometimes lack empathy and can respond inappropriately to social cues. I love people, I just would prefer to love them from a distance.

That’s just one reason I struggle with fellowship, but it is not the main reason. The main reason that I struggle with fellowship is that I don’t like other people telling me what to do. In order to follow leadership, I have to believe that the leader has my best interest at heart. Put plainly, I have trust issues.

Acts 2:43-47 are usually the scriptures people go to when talking about fellowship. But Acts 2:42 is where true fellowship begins:

“And they continued stedfastly in the apostles’ doctrine and fellowship, and in breaking of bread, and in prayers.”
‭‭Acts‬ ‭2:42‬ ‭KJV‬‬
https://bible.com/bible/1/act.2.42.KJV

The people submitted themselves to the apostles’ doctrine. The people weren’t each coming up with their own teaching. They didn’t have their own agendas. They came to be taught.

Too many of us stopped going to church to be taught. We go to see and be seen. We go to sit and not seek. Some of us go to serve and forget that we, too, our students. Seeking and serving are outcomes of submission, first to God, and then to those whom God gave authority to keep watch over our souls.

That being said our leaders need to know that you cannot serve a person to whom you are unwilling to submit. We are to esteem others higher than ourselves. Failure to do this is what breaks fellowship.

I am currently and willfully out of fellowship, and out of order. I have a feeling I am not alone.

Today, I pray for those whose fellowship and followship has been broken. I pray for a restoration of relationships that need to be mended and a peaceful resolution for those relationships that were broken by divine order. Help us to find those we are called to serve, and help us to honor and recognize those who were called to serve us.