Power to Accomplish What God Desires: There is Strength in Numbers!—Part VI

Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 states:
Two are better than one because they have a good return for their labor. For if either of them falls, the one will lift up his companion. But woe to the one who falls when there is not another to lift him up. Furthermore, if two lie down together they keep warm, but how can one be warm alone? And if one can overpower him who is alone, two can resist him. A cord of three strands is not quickly torn apart.

What a great teaching on the necessity of community! There is strength in numbers! This is why God instituted what we call the Church (a collection of believers separated from the ways of the world and able to spur one another on to greater love and good deeds because of the core things we hold in common). Yet, how many of us are attempting to live out our faith as though we are the Lone Ranger? How many of us keep our fears and failures bottled up inside of us because we have to put on the front that we are strong in our faith? How many of us would love to see the power of prayer bring about miraculous changes but are afraid to ask our brothers and sisters for help because we do not want to appear weak or needy?

Our calling is not to be solitary Christians, but to be members of a royal priesthood (I Peter 2:9). When Jesus taught His disciples to pray, He began His model prayer with, “Our Father” (Matthew 6:9). What part of our life in Christ is supposed to be an individual endeavor? Granted, we will stand before God to give a personal accounting on the Day of Judgment, but even that accounting will be about how we treated others and fulfilled the roles we were called to play in family, church and community!

Elijah went through a rough time in his ministry. Following the contest with the prophets of Baal on Mount Carmel in which the prophets of Baal were destroyed, he was threatened by Jezebel. His response was to run! He ran all the way out of the Promised Land and eventually isolated himself in a cave on the mountain where God had visited Moses and given him the 10 Commandments (I Kings 19:1-8). In his dialogue with God following the strong wind, the earthquake, and the fire that God was not in, God told him there were 7000 in Israel (the land he had just run away from) that had not bowed their knee to Baal (V. 18). SEVEN THOUSAND!!! Elijah had just said to God, “I alone am left; and they seek my life, to take it away” (V. 14). How did he not know about the SEVEN THOUSAND who were faithful to God? What kind of strength could this have given him as he dealt with a threat against his life and discouragement and fear?

Is it possible for us to become so preoccupied with our own struggles and frustrations that we fail to see the resources God has placed all around us through other believers in Him? We run to our caves of isolation feeling weak, tired and alone and convince ourselves that no one else understands or cares. We seek powerful displays from God to demonstrate our significance and value to Him, and to be affirmed in His care for us, but when He is in the gentle blowing wind instead of the fire and earthquake, we might not hear Him or experience Him because we are looking in the wrong place. And yet, we may have been surrounded by SEVEN THOUSAND who would walk right alongside us, if we only gave it a chance.

It was God who said, “It is not good for the man to be alone . . . .” It seems as though He understands the power we could have in numbers! Do we?

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-Scott