Community is also clutch. I heard a friend say, “Even Jesus didn’t carry his cross on his own,” referring to the fact that Simon helped him, but also to the fact that our burdens, our little crosses, our hard days, get a little more bearable when others are walking alongside us.

Actually, God uses three primary catalysts for changing us and conforming us to Christlikeness, but only one is largely under our control. One catalyst the Lord uses to change us is people. “Iron sharpens iron,” says Proverbs 27:17, “and one man sharpens another.”

At the same time, it has never been more important to gather in small groups.

Close Christian fellowship — gathering with others who know us by name, who are our literal neighboring brothers and sisters in Christ, to study God’s Word, break bread, and pray together — is not an optional extra for Christians, but the very source of our life and

It encourages people to depend on Christ rather than on us. We must faithfully present ourselves as people who need Christ every moment of every day. We are never more than his ambassadors, his instruments of change. It encourages humility and honesty. One of the radical differences between secular therapy and biblical ministry is the importance of

Praise be to the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, the Father of compassion and the God of all comfort, who comforts us in all our troubles, so that we can comfort those in any trouble with the comfort we ourselves have received from God. For just as the sufferings of Christ flow over into our lives, so also through Christ our comfort