Koinonia – To Your Health!

Let’s talk about this thing called fellowship—just hanging out, maybe sharing a meal. You may do this at a home group setting or a church potluck. You may gather a group of your Christian friends to your home for a meal and to watch a ball game, or play games or just enjoy some time together. This is actually very important to the Lord. Some references, such as Acts 2:42, show us that this was really important to the early Church. They made a really big deal out of it. They met frequently from house to house and they would break bread and study the scriptures together. 

Let me tell you something you probably didn’t know. When God gives us His guidelines for how to live, it really is for our good. Science is now discovering that communion, or communal interaction, fellowship, affects your physical body. It makes you healthier. It surprised me when I read that. This is a scientific study. To live in community with others affects one’s health significantly. That doesn’t mean communal living as in living in the same house with people you don’t know. It means hanging out with them on a regular basis. That is from a study in the Journal of American Medicine. 

They said, “Building on a dozen studies correlating friendship and fellowship with health, a new study has found that people with a broad array of social ties are significantly less likely to catch colds than those with sparse social networks.” Doesn’t that seem exactly the opposite of what you would have thought? I would think that the more people one is around, the more chances you have of catching something. Nope. It’s the opposite. It goes on, “A lack of diverse social contacts was the strongest of the risk factors studied, which included smoking, low vitamin C intake, and stress. Similar results have been found for heart disease patients who had limited social networks. They were found to be six times more likely to die of heart attacks than those with multiple friends, family members and acquaintances. God designed our physical bodies to live in fellowship one with another.

“They devoted themselves to the apostles’ teaching and to fellowship, to the breaking of bread and to prayer.” (Acts 2:42; NIV)

Give Him 15 minutes in prayer:

• Are you in the habit of regularly gathering together with other Believers? Think about why or why not?
• Thank the Lord for His Divine healthcare plan! Thank Him for your good health. 
• If your health is not so good, thank Him for His healing grace! Gather a group of Christian friends around you to pray for your health. Share a meal and hang out together in koinonia for a while.
• If you do not currently have a group of friends or Christian family members close by, start fellowship times in your home. Prime the pump. Make it happen! Watch what God does when you do.
• Intercede for a move of fellowship groups across your community.

A prayer you can pray:

Lord, what an astonishing report in the Journal of American Medicine. I would never have thought that getting around other people helps keep us well! I thought just the opposite. I’m really processing through the reality of how serious You were about creating family and community. This is a core value to You and You back it up with a sign and wonder that is the opposite of what one would think. We don’t get sick being in community. We stay well! That’s exactly like You. The devil wants to isolate us and make us sick and weak. You want to gather us together to strengthen and encourage one another. Of course You do! Thank You for keeping me well and whole. When I am not, I will do what the Bible tells me to and call for the elders or other Believers to come over and pray for me. Then, we will hang out together and encourage one another by fellowshipping together. We will help keep each other from sin, as well as laugh together and learn more about You together. I pray that the whole Body of Christ begins to gather together in groups for fellowship in Jesus’ name. Draw us together, Lord. Change our communities through this act of love and selflessness. Amen.

Today’s decree:

God loves it when His kids hang out together!