Relationships

In the past few weeks we have been talking about purpose and the different aspects that tie into our purpose; loving God and people, being present and alert, renewing our minds with God’s word, planting in a good church, obeying God, honouring our pastors, submitting to authority, being discipled to disciple and turning away from rebellion.

Yes, its been a crazy few weeks but all in good fun as God aligned and re-aligned things in our lives to the standard of His word. Next up, we are going to be looking at a very important aspect of our Christian walk which is relationships. Relationships are important, how we foster them and nurture them is also important.

We live in a world where people are encouraged to “do you boo boo”. Or we say, “I’m just gonna do me”. People do so much of life on their own but that’s not how God wants us to live. He created us for relationship. Firstly with Him and then with those around us. We are designed to live in community. To belong somewhere. We are part of God’s family but we must also be part of something tangible and within reach. I mentioned in our last series how with technology we are supposed to be more connected yet we are so disconnected from the people around us.

Relationships are not a thing of the past, they are for now. They are as important today as they were back when our grandparents were growing up. We live in an age where people don’t even know who their neighbours are anymore. I’m not saying we need to go around talking to everyone and be best friends with everyone. But for us to be salt and light we can’t do that just sitting in our homes behind closed doors staring at a screen. Ironic because that’s what I am doing right now as I write this blog but I must get up from here and go out into the world and have real conversations with people.

In life we have all kinds of different relationships and each relationship is different and has different boundaries and limitations. For example, say I am having some girlie time with my friends and I get an itchy back, I can easily ask one of my friends to scratch it for me if I can’t reach. However, if I am in a conference room having a meeting and I get an itchy back and cannot reach- well I better pray to Jesus to pull through because the nature of the relationship I have with my clients or co-workers is very different to that which I have with my close friends.

Another example is this, if a client asks me how my weekend was, the answer they get is about 10 minutes shorter and less detailed than if my mother asked me the same question. The nature of the relationship is that my private life is private when dealing with the client but when talking to my mom, everything is open for discussion. From the recurring pimple on my face to the thing that nearly made me cry the other day. We all have different kinds of relationships in our lives, with different boundaries and different dynamics. We can’t be best friends with everyone but we most certainly can influence the people in our world.

We are going to look at different relationships. But the most important relationship any born again believer will ever have is with God. So mostly we are going to be looking at our relationship with Jesus, Father God and the Holy Spirit. How we relate to God is very important because if we see Him as afar off and distant we will never let Him help us when we need it the most. We will most likely feel like we are in the conference room situation with an itchy back and no help in sight. However, if we see Him as a trusted friend, we know that nothing scares Him and we can let Him in and we can be vulnerable and open with Him about everything.

So this week, I want you to spend some time reflecting on your relationship with God and whether or not that relationship is growing over time or is stagnant. As we will discuss in coming weeks, growth is an important aspect of any healthy relationship.

Love and blessings,

Melissa Tsingano