Lesson 14 of 30: Godly Community Is Imperative

Godly community is imperative because it gives you the opportunity to experience Christ in the flesh. It also gives others the opportunity to experience Christ in you.

I have learned that isolation can protect you for a season, but community perfects you. It sharpens, stretches, and sanctifies. In community, Christ becomes tangible. You see His patience in a friend who listens when you are weary, His compassion in a sister who prays you through, His wisdom in a mentor who speaks truth in love.

There was a time when I tried to live out my faith in solitude. I told myself it was safer that way. People can be unreliable, inconsistent, and imperfect. After being hurt, disappointed, or misunderstood, isolation can feel like a sanctuary. But I have learned that without godly community, my faith withers in places I never noticed. You cannot sharpen iron in silence. You cannot grow in grace apart from people.

“As iron sharpens iron, so one person sharpens another.”

 - Proverbs 27:17

Community is not always comfortable, but it is necessary. It exposes pride, tests patience, and refines character. It humbles you to forgive, to listen, to reconcile, to love even when it costs something. These moments are not interruptions to your faith, they are the very spaces where Christ is revealed through you.

I see this truth play out daily, not only through ministry but in my relationship. My fiancé tests me in this way too. The process of preparing to become one requires refining, and sometimes that refining feels like friction. Iron sharpening iron is not gentle, it is jarring...loud, and sparks fly. Yet it is necessary. Through him, I am learning new levels of patience, humility, communication, and grace. God uses our differences to teach me how to love more like Him.

“Let us consider how we may spur one another on toward love and good deeds, not giving up meeting together, as some are in the habit of doing, but encouraging one another.”

Hebrews 10:24–25

And as I look back over the years, I see how godly community has shaped me through many different believers I’ve journeyed with. Some of us met as strangers, only to become lifelong sisters and brothers in Christ. We have cried together, fasted together, prayed through heartbreak, confusion, and transition. Today, many of those same friends are walking in answered prayers, leading ministries, stepping into marriage, birthing visions they once only dreamed about. Often, we reflect on how our friendship prepared us for these seasons. The accountability, the prayer, the vulnerability, the laughter - all of it became training ground for purpose. In fact as I think about it almost every woman I have walked closely with, is married now.

My desire in this life is for Christ to be found and experienced in me. In the way I lead, in the way I serve, in the way I love. Because when we love one another well, we reveal Him to the world.

“By this everyone will know that you are my disciples, if you love one another.” 

- John 13:35

Conclusion

For my 30’s, I am choosing to stay connected. To open my heart to community even when it is messy. To allow myself to be sharpened, stretched, and seen. Because godly community is where the invisible Christ becomes visible — both in me and through me.

Now that you know, let’s grow,

– Kimrose🌹