When a school girl tried using a thermometer to measure a table, her teacher was shocked. In fifteen years of teaching, he had seen many mistakes. But even he was amazed that a student could make it to secondary school without knowing the difference between a ruler and a thermometer. He was very sad to see that a girl at school was struggling to move forward because she still hadn’t learnt the basics.

When I heard the teacher tell this story I thought, We sometimes do the same thing at church. We measure the wrong things in the wrong way to see how well we’re doing. For example, we might think that the biggest churches with the most people are the most pleasing to God. Or that the churches that hold the most youth events are clearly doing the best. Maybe we think that the most popular speakers are the most godly.

But measuring churches in these ways is like working out a table length with a thermometer! The Bible tells us that the healthiest churches are not necessarily the busiest or most popular. God is much more interested in measuring our humility, gentleness and patience (EPH. 4:2). “Bearing with one another in love” (V.2) is a sign that our church family is a place of God’s love, showing we’re moving towards His goal for us: “the whole measure of the fullness of Christ” (V.13).

By: Julie Ackerman Link

To Pray About . . .

Dear Lord, please grant me the spirit of discernment. Teach me to measure my own spiritual journey with the right perspective, using Your standards.