As the church family was completing the 40 Day Prayer Challenge, I spoke about the ripple effect Jesus’ prayer in John 17 has on the church today. I specifically spoke about unity among the body and how important that is to fulfill the prayer of Jesus “so that the world may believe that you have sent me.”

However, something that I did not speak about related to unity is reconciliation of the body of Christ. Before a church, and more specifically PHBC, can be united and focus on the vision of helping people find and follow Jesus Christ, there must be reconciliation among its family. We are at a point where many things have happened that have hurt people and a time of forgiveness and healing needs to take place.

  

For healing to take place, there needs to be reconciliation. The dictionary defines “reconcile” in this way: to re-establish friendship between. To settle or resolved as a dispute. To bring oneself to accept. To make compatible. This is not an easy process, since it is easy to believe your point-of-view is correct, when in fact it may not be. The start of reconciliation is often taking the time to examine our own heart to see if there is something we have done or are doing that is causing others to stumble, and make that right to reestablish the friendship or resolve the dispute.

  

In Matthew 7:3-5 Jesus tells us, “Why do you look at the speck of sawdust in your brother’s eye and pay no attention to the plank in your own eye? How can you say to your brother, ‘Let me take the speck out of your eye,’ when all the time there is a plank in your own eye? You hypocrite, first take the plank out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to remove the speck from your brother’s eye.”

I challenge each of us to begin the pursuit of unity in the church by examining our own lives. First, are we right with God? Have we asked Him for forgiveness of our sin? Then, we need to examine if we are carrying actions, attitudes, or words that are causing our fellow believers to stumble and resist pursuing reconciliation and forgiveness. Are there people we need to talk to, or actions we need to take that will help another begin the healing process? Are there people that we need to seek forgiveness from?

  

Remember the words of Jesus in John 17:20-23: “I do not ask for these only, but also for those who will believe in me through their word, that they may all be one, just as you, Father, are in me, and I in you, that they also may be in us, so that the world may believe that you have sent me. The glory that you have given me I have given to them, that they may be one even as we are one, I in them and you in me, that they may become perfectly one, so that the world may know that you sent me and loved them even as you loved me.”