As a devotional writer, I believe in private devotions, but I realize that the private part has in it a kind of danger. Our spirituality disconnected from a body of believers is very incomplete. We are not Lone Ranger Christians. It is much more than “Jesus and Me”. We are part of a community called church. Most of what the Bible says about spirituality can never be achieved in isolation. There are others to love, cherish, encourage, pray for and assist. If my private devotions are a kind of isolationism, the sickness of my soul is revealed, and what I thought was spirituality is my own downfall. There is spiritual light that comes through corporate worship that does not come in private places.
Father, thank You for this relationship of love that we have with You, but may we know that it must find expression by loving and serving the others whom You also love and serve.
