“That which we have seen and heard we declare to you, that you also may have fellowship with us; and truly our fellowship is with the Father and with His Son Jesus Christ.”

— 1 John 1:3

Do you realize how much God wants to have fellowship with you? It’s difficult to imagine, but it’s true. He loves you and wants to be with you far more than you could ever dream.

What can we do to meet Him halfway, to play our part in developing fellowship with God? A story by the English evangelist Charles Spurgeon may hold the answer.

Suppose a great plague comes to London. People are dying everywhere. Those who are still alive feel such terror that they’ve boarded themselves up in their homes. Suppose an English nobleman has a son who is a great physician. Together they determine to help as many people as they can. The son searches for the sick and brings them to the house he and his father share. The father smiles approvingly at the son’s compassion. The son goes out again and again, searching for victims.

Suppose one day the son finds you lying hopelessly on a street corner. He picks you up tenderly in his arms and takes you to his home. As you recover, you begin to realize that nothing in the world compares to the work happening in that house. So you enter into a sympathetic understanding of the father and son’s mission. Yet if you want to actually enter into fellowship with that great man and his son, you must go further. You must come to the place where you ask them how you can help. When you do, they give you the task of carrying basins and bringing towels. You now have some part in their fellowship, yet you cannot understand it fully until the day you say, “Sir, I see that what you are doing is the only thing in life that really matters. I want to give my whole self over to it. I want to go out and join your son in bringing in the sick.” At that point, my friend, you begin to enter into and understand the deep mystery of fellowship with the father and his son.

If you’d like to enter into a deeper fellowship with the Father and His Son, ask God to show you the first step you should take. Ask Him to send someone into your life whom you can bring to Him.

“With heart toward God and hand toward man.”
Slogan Of The Salvation Army