Why do people leave the church Part VII

What can we do about it?

First of all, let me say to you if you have been hurt, I am sorry for your pain.

The first thing you need to realize is that God loves you. He would never do anything to cause you pain unless it was vital to your best interests.

We would do well to understand that the pain and suffering we experience are direct results of sin. God warned Adam and Eve not to eat of the tree in the garden but they did. There was no reason to eat that fruit as their every need was provided by God. Today we suffer as a result of sin. Let us not accuse God or blame everything on Adam and Eve. Every one of us sins. Yes, it is in our nature, but are we not able to decide for ourselves what we will do?

If none of us were sinners we would all join together as one big, happy family within the body of Christ. God is not the problem, we are; God is the solution. If we truly want happiness, we must submit to Jesus Christ. If we do, we will experience His joy, His peace, His comfort.

“Who shall separate us from the love of Christ? Shall tribulation, or distress, or persecution, or famine, or nakedness, or peril, or sword? Yet in all these things we are more than conquerors through Him who loved us.” - Romans 8:35-37

I would like to add one more reason people leave the church. It is because God becomes meaningless in our lives. Maybe as a child we believed; maybe we had great hope in a Heavenly Father; but as we grow older, the Bible stories become just that-stories. God may not seem personal; He may seem like a distant, un-caring deity out there, somewhere. This attitude or thought would be listed under the lies of the Devil. God is personal, He cares deeply.

If you have strayed away from Him or if you have never received Him, I beg you to just pray and ask Him to reveal Himself to you; He will. It may not be what you expect, or the way you want Him to, but I can assure you, you will never regret it.

In Closing;

As believers, what is our charge? In II Timothy, Paul charged Timothy as a preacher to “Preach the Word.” Every believer should follow this to the degree possible.

¹ I charge you therefore before God and the Lord Jesus Christ, who will judge the living and the dead at His appearing and His kingdom: ² Preach the word! Be ready in season and out of season. Convince, rebuke, exhort, with all longsuffering and teaching. ³ For the time will come when they will not endure sound doctrine, but according to their own desires, because they have itching ears, they will heap up for themselves teachers; ⁴ and they will turn their ears away from the truth, and be turned aside to fables. ⁵ But you be watchful in all things, endure afflictions, do the work of an evangelist, fulfill your ministry. –II Timothy 4:1-5

As the arms and legs of the body of Christ, we need to commit ourselves to growing in Christ. That means we are to act as He did/does. In “everything” we do, we need to do it in love! Then the world will see His light shine through us and they will be drawn to the light.