Just like God heard Kelly, God hears the pleas of your heart too. He hears the prayers you whisper in the middle of the night. He sees how your life aches. He understands how your heart longs to belong and to be loved. And He knows how hopelessness and confusion weigh heavy on you.<\/p>\n
God sees it all. And He wants you to hear His words: You are loved. You belong. And you are meant for something great.<\/strong><\/p>\n In a social-media-centered society, deep and meaningful relationships are becoming a rarity. We can be connected to hundreds of people, without fully connecting to a single one of them.<\/p>\n Kelly argued with her counselor about needing people in her life. She thought she was content staying isolated. \u201cI\u2019m fine sitting in my house by myself. I don\u2019t need anybody.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n Maybe we don\u2019t want to connect with others because we\u2019re afraid of being truly known. Or maybe we\u2019re scared of being hurt. Perhaps we\u2019ve been hurt in the past, so we separate ourselves from others to feel \u201csafe.\u201d<\/em> But the problem with that is, we were created for community. Our hearts are wired for love and relationships with others.<\/strong><\/p>\n \u201cI pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord\u2019s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge \u2014 that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.\u201d – Ephesians 3.16-19<\/p><\/blockquote>\n After the knock on Kelly\u2019s door, she realized that God really had heard her prayers. God had brought people directly to her doorstep. She also knew it was time to step out and connect with others. \u201cI knew that I needed to get involved with people and get out of my house. So I knew where I needed to go was church.\u201d<\/em><\/p>\n From the beginning of creation, God said it wasn\u2019t good for man to be alone.<\/strong> He created Adam and Eve to be together \u2014 to support each other and love each other. Jesus even sent His disciples to minister in pairs. Together, as a team, they helped change the world. When we gather together, we grow. We grow in love. We grow in strength. We grow more into the likeness of Jesus. And when that happens, God\u2019s love overflows out of us. It then begins to pour onto the people in our lives, communities we live in, and the world around us. Together, we are transformed through Jesus, and together, we can change the world.<\/p>\n \u201cBe kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.\u201d – Ephesians 4.32-5.2<\/p><\/blockquote>\n Church is so much more than a place to socialize. It isn\u2019t just a building. Church is a community \u2014 a family. It is a place where imperfect people \u2014 no matter how different can come together with one mutual truth: Jesus loves each one.<\/p>\n \u201cFor where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.\u201d – Matthew 18:20<\/p><\/blockquote>\n There is a place for you \u2014 right now, exactly as you are. So, come on in.<\/strong><\/p>","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":" God Hears You Just like God heard Kelly, God hears the pleas of your heart too. He hears the prayers you whisper in the middle of the night. He sees how your life aches. He understands how your heart longs to belong and to be loved. And He knows how hopelessness and confusion weigh heavy on you. God sees it all. And He wants you to hear His words: You are loved. You belong. And you are meant for something great. In a social-media-centered society, deep and meaningful relationships are becoming a rarity. We can be connected to hundreds of people, without fully connecting to a single one of them. Kelly argued with her counselor about needing people in her life. She thought she was content staying isolated. \u201cI\u2019m fine sitting in my house by myself. I don\u2019t need anybody.\u201d Freedom in Vulnerability Maybe we don\u2019t want to connect with others because we\u2019re afraid of being truly known. Or maybe we\u2019re scared of being hurt. Perhaps we\u2019ve been hurt in the past, so we separate ourselves from others to feel \u201csafe.\u201d But the problem with that is, we were created for community. Our hearts are wired for love and relationships with others. \u201cI pray that out of his glorious riches he may strengthen you with power through his Spirit in your inner being, so that Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith. And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the Lord\u2019s holy people, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge \u2014 that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness of God.\u201d – Ephesians 3.16-19 God Uses People to Speak to Us After the knock on Kelly\u2019s door, she realized that God really had heard her prayers. God had brought people directly to her doorstep. She also knew it was time to step out and connect with others. \u201cI knew that I needed to get involved with people and get out of my house. So I knew where I needed to go was church.\u201d From the beginning of creation, God said it wasn\u2019t good for man to be alone. He created Adam and Eve to be together \u2014 to support each other and love each other. Jesus even sent His disciples to minister in pairs. Together, as a team, they helped change the world. When we gather together, we grow. We grow in love. We grow in strength. We grow more into the likeness of Jesus. And when that happens, God\u2019s love overflows out of us. It then begins to pour onto the people in our lives, communities we live in, and the world around us. Together, we are transformed through Jesus, and together, we can change the world. \u201cBe kind to each other, tenderhearted, forgiving one another, just as God through Christ has forgiven you. Imitate God, therefore, in everything you do, because you are his dear children. Live a life filled with love, following the example of Christ. He loved us and offered himself as a sacrifice for us, a pleasing aroma to God.\u201d – Ephesians 4.32-5.2 Church is a Gift Church is so much more than a place to socialize. It isn\u2019t just a building. Church is a community \u2014 a family. It is a place where imperfect people \u2014 no matter how different can come together with one mutual truth: Jesus loves each one. \u201cFor where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them.\u201d – Matthew 18:20 There is a place for you \u2014 right now, exactly as you are. So, come on in.<\/p>","protected":false},"author":7,"featured_media":1163,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"video","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[21,20,41],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-1146","post","type-post","status-publish","format-video","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-belonging","category-church","category-community","post_format-post-format-video"],"acf":[],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/7"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=1146"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/1146\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/1163"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=1146"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=1146"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/encounter.com\/es\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=1146"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}Freedom in Vulnerability<\/h2>\n
God Uses People to Speak to Us<\/h3>\n
Church is a Gift<\/h4>\n