Desire to Gather

What struck me today was that many people consider Christians weak and unable to live independently, and ascribing our urge of seeking the like-minded believers to these alleged shortcomings.
And not only that; the very desire we have to seek God and His Kingdom supposedly results from our inability to break ourselves loose from the limitations of religion and theology. In other words - we are narrow-minded, stupid individuals, who are afraid to think on their own.
Pretty nice picture, isn't it?
Of course this is the consequence of the very simple truth: the world does not have a clue what Christianity is all about. And the world does not want to know, either. (But that would be another subject.)
Yet one thing is true: we want to get together with other believers, and this for a variety of reasons.

Prophecy says so, for one. The Lord Himself shall gather His elect:

Let both grow together until the harvest, and at harvest time I will tell the reapers, Gather the weeds first and bind them in bundles to be burned, but gather the wheat into my barn.'"
(Mat 13:30)
And he will send out his angels with a loud trumpet call, and they will gather his elect from the four winds, from one end of heaven to the other.
(Mat 24:31)
His winnowing fork is in his hand, to clear his threshing floor and to gather the wheat into his barn, but the chaff he will burn with unquenchable fire."
(Luk 3:17)
and not for the nation only, but also to gather into one the children of God who are scattered abroad.
(Joh 11:52)

We are to gather with the Lord:

For where two or three are gathered in my name, there am I among them."
(Mat 18:20)
Whoever is not with me is against me, and whoever does not gather with me scatters.
(Luk 11:23)

We are to gather to hear the Word:

And many were gathered together, so that there was no more room, not even at the door. And he was preaching the word to them.
(Mar 2:2)
So when they were sent off, they went down to Antioch, and having gathered the congregation together, they delivered the letter.
(Act 15:30)
On the first day of the week, when we were gathered together to break bread, Paul talked with them, intending to depart on the next day, and he prolonged his speech until midnight.
(Act 20:7)

We are to gather to pray:

When he realized this, he went to the house of Mary, the mother of John whose other name was Mark, where many were gathered together and were praying.
(Act 12:12)

We are to gather to witness:

And when they arrived and gathered the church together, they declared all that God had done with them, and how he had opened a door of faith to the Gentiles.
(Act 14:27)

We are to gather to support one another in faith and doctrine:

Now concerning the coming of our Lord Jesus Christ and our being gathered together to him, we ask you, brothers, not to be quickly shaken in mind or alarmed, either by a spirit or a spoken word, or a letter seeming to be from us, to the effect that the day of the Lord has come.
(2Th 2:1-2)

If this is weakness, let me be weak. If this is dependence, let me be dependent for everything. If this is limitation, let me diminish to nothing before You, oh Lord, because only You are strong and mighty.

A Christian does not have to depend on his own strength. He knows it means nothing, and he gladly seeks God's helping hand to lift him from the ground of despair and misery.