If two are better than one, then three must be even better. Throughout scripture we often picture things in threes. God himself, is represented in three parts: God the Father, God the Son, God the Holy Spirit. We also see this in the picture of what a Christian marriage should look like: God at the center of a relationship of two people. 

God at the center; this is where strength in community comes from. It’s also what has made the church an irresistible force from the beginning. Having strength from above and also beside us makes it nearly impossible to be pulled down. And let’s be honest, there are a lot of things that can pull us down. 

When Jesus was asked what we must do to inherit eternal life, he replied, “‘Love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your strength and with all your mind; and, ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’” (Luke 10:27 NIV). When we focus on loving God and loving others, we find that we have the strength not only to face our own circumstances but to go beyond ourselves and bring the love of Jesus to the world.

Pray

1. Pray for strength, using Mr. T’s prayer above as your framework, personalizing it to your own life and circumstances. 

2. Pray a prayer over our Eastside community, asking God to strengthen us as we pursue him, build community together, and seek to unleash his love and compassion on a broken world. 

3. Meditate on these words from Jesus, spoken in the book of John, chapter 13: “A new command I give you: Love one another. As I have loved you, so you must love one another. By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” Every time you read the words “one another,” replace them with someone in your community that you are struggling to love.