2020 and Beyond: New Year, New Priorities

Temi Michael-O

Earlier last year, I lost value for gathering with fellow believers. Online church was my thing. There were Sundays I skipped church to meet academic deadlines, showed up late and used the little one as an excuse to just stream online. My motto for this was God understands. He truly understands. While God wants us to mature as Christians, He is faithful and merciful to meet us where we are in our faith walk. Be it unto you according to your faith.

Towards the end of the year, I was convicted. I had to move from God understands to I understand what God wants this season. The need to prioritize fellowship with other believers and punctuality became paramount.

This year, I have purposed in my heart to prioritize church attendance. Church attendance over my feelings. Church attendance over meeting academic deadlines. Prioritizing church attendance would be an act of sacrifice and a way for me to model an important aspect of the Christian life to the little one. Whether we desire it or not, we are our children’s role model and our values will ultimately become their values.

There are underground churches in various parts of the world. Christians are being persecuted for gathering because the enemy knows there is power in fellowshipping with other believers. It is easier to take down a lone wolf than a wolf pack. With these in mind, church attendance should be prioritized. It is okay to stream church services but we should not let it replace physical attendance if possible.

If you do not like your local churches, ask God to show you where He wants you planted. Let the head of the Church guide you. That’s the best way to go about choosing a local church and it is more important than feelings-based decisions.

Let’s prioritize attending church with our little ones this year. Let’s start with this month, this first quarter, etc.. Soon, we would move beyond attending to serving and having a sense of family. More importantly, having a church family would become a family value. Not a mere religious act. Stay blessed!

15 Comments

  1. Church attendance, especially with little ones is tough, but I love what you say – God understands us, though we should do our best to understand what He wants for us, too. Which is only to bless us and lead us to grow ❤️ God bless, friend.

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  2. This is a great topic Temi! I like how you mentioned that God meets us where we are. We do go through different seasons of life. As long as we’re listening to the convictions and leadings the Holy Spirit gives us we will do well.

    Christians also need to be careful not to judge others when they don’t know all the details of their situation. I’ve seen Christians who have always attended church regularly but now are struggling with illness and pain and can’t make it to church for awhile, be harassed by pompous Christians who are able to physically attend every Sunday. They act as if they deserve a badge of honor because they went to church. To me that’s certainly not Christlike and it does not show compassion toward the ill Christians.

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    1. Amen! Yes to all you wrote and thank you for the insightful comment. Being attuned to God’s word for every season is important. The scenario you presented is sad and it happens too often. We should always show compassion. Lol! I find the badge of honor statement hilarious. My my🤭🤭

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  3. I agree 100%! My husband and I just recently went through something similar … we’d not been to church in 6 months. We’re back now, refreshed and ready for worship.

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    1. I thank God for the new season he has brought your family into. We also feel refreshed and excited for the future. Thank you for the insightful comment with a personal touch♥️

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  5. Your relationship with God is what you make of it and if church helps strengthen that for you then I’m glad that you can have that experience for yourself. Much love and respect💛

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