It’s good to receive the right hand of fellowship as Paul referred to it. However, we can’t establish homemade barriers that need to be cleared before we are willing to start to obey God in reaching out to our community. Encouragement is great to receive, but it’s not necessary in order to go forward. We can start and then move forward on scant encouragement from the outside.
In many cases, church leaders don’t speak the language of encouragement. It’s not that they don’t have it in their hearts to say something that might lift you up, it’s just that they don’t know what to say. There is a general communication snafu. Therefore we can’t wait until all things are ideally in place before we obey. God is going to move in response to your forward progress. You simply need to get started. You can’t withhold obedience to God while you wait for someone to speak the language of encouragement.
We will receive affirmation in due time. God will see to that. We may not receive it before we start into our outreach actions though. Don’t spend much energy worrying about your personal comfort. He is in love with you and me, but he is not all that concerned with your personal level of comfort.
God often wants us to begin by beginning. He nudges us. We move. It may not always “feel” right or a way we perceive it should. If we’re on the correct path, God has His ways of letting us know.
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