I think with this question we also need to include non-Christians, and there is a first step for a non-Christian, in that for someone who doesn’t know God yet, and doesn’t know that Jesus is their Saviour, as a local church we want to share with them the good news of the Gospel, the fact that God loves them, the fact the He sent His Son to die for them.
But as a local church how do we help those who are battling with a whole lot of things?
I think the first place we start is that we are friends with them and we want to share fellowship with them. We do it unconditionally, we do it non-judgmentally, we offer an ear to listen because anybody who’s dealing with any sort of problem is helped when they have someone to share it with, someone who will listen empathetically, who will ask a leading question, to say “Did I understand that right? You said this, would you like to tell me a bit more about that?”, so we need to be a listening ear, and we also need to be ready to share the truth we know. When someone says to me “I’m overwhelmed by my fear” I need to be ready so say to them there is an answer to your fear, and its in the Bible and its what God does in our lives. So we start by being friends.
Then the next step, and I think this is one of the most important things, and that is that we need to pray; pray for them, and if they’ll let us, pray with them. Even if they say no, I don’t want to pray with you, or I don’t feel like I can pray with you, we can pray for them, and pray for them consistently. As the opportunity arises we can let them know “I prayed for you, and I know tomorrow is going to be stressful for you, and I’ll pray for you”, and as we pray, God works because it is not us who can solve or fix their problems. So we pray for them.
We encourage them to learn what the bible has to say. Being part of a growth group is a wonderful way to be able to find out what the Bible says about fear, about anger, about addiction, about other challenges that can grip our lives, and as we share in the small group, and as we build relationships, and as we build confidence in the group, then we can share with them and say, as I did to my bible study group on Tuesday night, “I’m really struggling this week, please pray for me”, and this week I had several people who messaged me and said “I prayed for you this week. and as I prayed for you God gave me this hymn, or this Bible verse”, and in that way we pick each other up and we carry each other. So if you’re someone who deals with these sorts of issues, join a Bible study group. We have many here across the different age ranges, and we have all-women’s groups, we have a men’s group, we have mixed groups. Find a group that suits you, and join it, and listen to what God says.
There’s also, beyond our individual study groups, there are those who have done extra-Biblical training; our pastors, our elders, people who are experienced in the faith, to whom we can go and say “I’m really struggling with this question”. They can explain to us what the Scriptures say, they can encourage us and might give us a book that you can read, because there are lots of helpful books. They might encourage us to go and talk to someone who has particular skill in dealing with a particular issue. If we know of someone in our group then we need to be ready as people have done for me, to share a verse, to share a hymn, to ask meaningful questions. One of the questions we ask in society is “How are you?”, and we say “Very well thankyou” with a smile stuck on our face, but we need to practice asking “How are you?” and really meaning the question and being ready to listen to the answer.
Sometimes we need to encourage people to go and seek the help of a medical or psychiatric or psychological nature. Being able to say to someone with whom you’ve built a relationship “Have you talked to your GP about this?” or to say “I’ve had a problem like this and I found it helpful to talk to so-and-so”. So be ready to share your experience and be ready to encourage them to find help, primarily in the Bible, but also to use the other things that God has given to us, the other services that God has made available to us.
The last thing I’ve put down is persistence. Don’t give up. Don’t give up on them – if they are dealing with anger or dealing with fear there are times when you will cop their anger or fear, but don’t give up. Be a persistent friend, a persistent prayer, a persistent sharer of the Scriptures, because God won’t give up on them, and God won’t give up on their relationship with you either.
The local church has a lot to offer to people who deal with all sorts of problems, whether it is fear, or anger, or addiction, or – you fill in the blanks. But for you, join a church, be part of a group of Christians, and see what God can do for you.
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