The Benefits of Gathering With God's People

I just read this interesting piece of research: “People who attended a religious service at least once a week were significantly less likely to die from ‘deaths of despair,’ which included deaths related to suicide, drug overdose, and alcohol poisoning” according to research published recently in JAMA Psychiatry. The study went on to say “women who attended religious services at least once a week had a 68 percent lower risk of death from despair compared to their peers who never attended services and men had a 33 percent lower risk of death from despair.” (“Attending Religious Services Associated with Lower Risk of Deaths of Despair,” Mind, Mood & Memory, Massachusetts General Hospital, Vol. 16, No. 9, p. 6)

There have been many similar studies over the years citing the benefits of attending religious services: better sleep (Sleep Health Journal Vol. 4, Issue 4, p. 325-330), more stable, happy, and sexually satisfying marriages (Living and Loving “Decent”: Religion and Relationship Quality among Urban Parents), longer life (Association of Religious Service Attendance with Mortality Among Women), lower blood pressure (The relationship between religious activities and blood pressure in older adults), and other health benefits mentioned here.

All this is great (like icing on a cake), but some of the best benefits of coming together with God’s people are:

Honoring God’s will together (Hebrews 10:25: “Not forsaking our own assembling together, as is the habit of some”)

Encouraging one another together (Hebrews 10:24 & 25b: “And let us consider how to stimulate one another to love and good deeds” and v. 25b: “encouraging one another; and all the more as you see the day drawing near.”)

Remembering Christ’s sacrifice together (1 Cor. 10:16-17: “Is not the cup of blessing which we bless a sharing in the blood of Christ? Is not the bread which we break a sharing in the body of Christ? Since there is one bread, we who are many are one body; for we all partake of the one bread.”)

Witnessing to unbelievers together (John 13:35: “By this all men will know that you are My disciples, if you have love for one another.”)

Testifying of God’s wisdom to the angelic host together (Ephesians 3:10: “So that the wisdom of God might now be made known through the church to the rulers and the authorities in the heavenly places.”)

Greeting one another together (Romans 16:16: “Greet one another with a holy kiss.”) In COVID terms, that could be a fist kiss, elbow kiss, foot kiss, hand-sanitized kiss, shoulder kiss, or just blow a 6-foot kiss.

Being nourished by God’s Word together (1 Thessalonians 2:13: “For this reason we also constantly thank God that when you received the word of God which you heard from us, you accepted it not as the word of men, but for what it really is, the word of God, which also performs its work in you who believe.”)

Worshipping the Lord together (1 Corinthians 14:24-25: “But if all prophesy…the secrets of his heart are disclosed; and so he will fall on his face and worship God, declaring that God is certainly among you.”)

There are more, and our Lord has blessed us with many benefits of coming together whether spiritual, emotional, mental, relational, or physical.

I’m excited to rejoin everyone in-person beginning Monday, November 16th, and am looking forward to Sunday together on November 22nd.

Count your blessings as the family of God. We are uniquely and supernaturally blessed!

Pastor Jeff