Stretch Out Your Hands
- Vernita "Neat" Simmons
- Aug 25
- 2 min read
Saturday, August 23, 2025 - Community Wellness Day
I'm grateful to be part of a church that partakes in outreach that resembles who Jesus is and what He did. We can't stay behind the four walls of the church. If they're not coming to us, we must go where they are. Jesus didn't confine Himself within the four walls of the temple. He went out to where they were. That's what outreach is all about.
You have to stretch your hands out to reach someone. We can't connect with people if we stay in our comfort zones. They are in an uncomfortable place. They may be in distress; that's not comfortable. They could be in despair and feeling hopeless, which is not comfortable. Someone might be feeling discouraged, anxious, and still experiencing post-election stress. That's not comfortable.
Isaiah 65:2 and Romans 10:21 show us the mercy of God holding out His hands to those still in resistance to Him. However, the Lord always has a specific season to destroy the enemy and rescue souls. He did so through David when He empowered him to strike down Goliath. (1 Samuel 17:45-47).
Dear One, on this day, God has entrusted us, (DJICC) this community into our hands to offer them hope for their despair, comfort for their pain, joy for sorrow, and peace for their torment. The Lord is greater than their Goliath, whatever that may be. All they have to do is take His hand, and the Lord will rescue them and turn their circumstances around.
I pray the musical selection, Have You Met My Jesus, with Harvest Worship featuring Chris Tomlin and Ricky Jackson, stirs your heart to come as you are and take His outstretched hand.
TIME FOR REFLECTION: How does Church outreach help others to see that God loves them?
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