TOGETHERNESS

“They broke bread together in their homes, sharing meals with simple joy”
(Acts 2:46 JBP).

Breaking bread is not only talking about communion, but sharing a meal with someone. God loves us to eat together. I’m sure this is one of the reasons why “God sets the solitary in families” (Psalm 68:6).

Togetherness begins personally and spreads outward.

1. TOGETHERNESS WITH CHRIST

We feast together with Christ in our personal relationship with Him (John 6:32-58; 14:23; 15:1-7 and Revelation 3:20). Without our personal relationship with Jesus Christ we have nothing of eternal value to bring to others. The corporate togetherness is where we share and overflow from our daily walk with God.

2. TOGETHERNESS AS HUSBAND AND WIFE

What a joy to share with one another the revelation we receive as we feed on Christ and His living Word. Our “heart burns within us” as He talks with us along the way (Luke 24:32) and we cannot keep it to ourselves. We love to talk and fellowship about it with each other. Do you love to do this with your husband?

Ephesians 6:25-29 tells us how the husband washes his wife with God’s Word. As He feasts on the Word, He then reads and expounds it to his wife and she is washed.

3. TOGETHERNESS AS A FAMILY

Breaking bread together as a family should be the habit of our daily lives. Many modern families no longer eat together, and we reap the negative results in our society.

A study found that children who eat dinner with their parents five or more days a week have less trouble with drugs and alcohol, eat healthier, show better academic performance, and report being closer with their parents than children who do not eat frequently with their parents. * Did you know the average American eats one in every five meals in the car?

However, I am sure you are a family that eats together. This is why we eat at a table--to see one another’s faces. Eating is not just assimilating food for the body, but for the soul and the mind. We interreact together. But there’s more. It’s also food for the spirit. This is true breaking of bread where we feed every part of our children’s lives—body, soul, and spirit. Never, ever think that preparing a nutritious and lovely meal for our family is a waste of time. It is all part of our homemaking mandate.

But we also make sure that we don’t leave the table before we read God’s Word to our children. In The Netherlands, reading God’s Word at the end of the meal is called “Finishing up the Meal.” They don’t leave the table before they feed their spirit.

A parent can have a strong relationship with Jesus, but if they don’t share it with their children, it will not affect their lives. We are to share our faith--firstly with our children. I know a mother whose faith is strong in God. But she has not imparted it to her children. She has left them to find their own way. She does not attend church or encourage her children to gather with God’s people. Three of her children do not walk with the Lord and two are in desperate lifestyle situations.

Make togetherness part of your family life—eating together, fellowshipping together, reading God’s Word together, and praying together.

4. TOGETHERNESS WITH THE SAINTS

Our Christian walk is not only personal but a togetherness with other believers. The early church showed the example. Every day they met in their homes to share food with one another and talk together of all the wonderful revelations of Christ in His Word. These Jewish believers had fulfilled the ritual of the temple sacrifices for centuries, but now, for the first time, they saw the fulfilment of Christ in it all. I am sure that every day they saw a new understanding of Christ and His death and resurrection for our sins. Their hearts would have been overflowing with joy.

They would be required to work for their living during the day, so mealtimes were the best times to get together. And the best times to share their new joys with one another. Eating is always enhanced when you feed your soul and spirit as well as your body. We know we have truly broken bread when our souls are satisfied as well as our bodies.

Are you receiving new understanding from God’s Word each day? Are you sharing God’s Word with your children? Are you opening your home in hospitality to share with other believers?

Did you notice that as the new believers met together DAILY in their homes that something else happened? “And the Lord added to the church DAILY such as should be saved” (Acts 2:47).

PRAYER:

‘Thank you, dear Father, that you did not create me to live alone, but for togetherness. Please help me to be a rich blessing to my husband, my family, and other believers as I gather them to my table. Amen.”

AFFIRMATION:

I am a gatherer—gathering my family around my table each day and gathering others to our home.

SCRIPTURES TO LOOK UP ABOUT TOGETHERNESS:
1 Corinthians 1:10; 5:4; 11:33; 14;26; Ephesians 2:5-7, 21, 22; 4:16; 3:17; Colossians 2:2, 19; 1 Thessalonians 5:11; 2 Thessalonians 1:2; and Hebrews 10:25.

* https://www.centeronaddiction.org/addiction-research/reports/importance-of-family-dinners-2012