Building Loving Relationships...<333
The devotions last Friday by the principal seemed to be a prelude to the main message that God was trying to say to me at Church yesterday on Sunday. As was so obvious for so long, as I have mentioned in many posts, a major area in my life that I felt was a great struggle was my relationships especially in terms of friendships. All this while, I’ve been struggling with whether there’s more I could do to be a better friend or if it was due to my circumstances that I’ve had friends few and far between. And, for the most part I found it hard to see how I could live life fully with a lack of actual friends, but I just trusted that the Lord has a plan for me. And, I know that in my other post about friendship I seemed to imply that friendship is not really indispensable and that even if we don’t have friendship it does not really matter as long as we have the all important relationship with God. Also, I seemed to say that friendship is about the important moments and that all the spending time with each other did truly matter as much. But, what I meant was that since when I needed help the most I had friends to help me then, perhaps I’m wrong to say that I have no friends and I meant that God should be our priority over friends or any other relationships not that we should be content having no friends. In fact yea, as mentioned God created us for fellowship. And, we are all part of the body of Christ, so clearly yes we need to have friends as that is God’s will for our lives. And, given my situation as it stands, I feel that God is somehow working and I’m beginning to see signs of friendships, but though I don’t have many friends, I’m praying that the Lord will guide me and show me if there’s something more I need to do to begin this journey of developing true loving relationships in this case friendships. I’ll of course also continue to trust the Lord. Anyway, just before I get into the post proper, I just wanna say that in this post I’m not here to complain, for I’m different now, but I just wanna use this opportunity to show that God has spoken to me and that the whole friendship thing is truly coming together and I am beginning to grasp what the whole situation means.
The message on Sunday was entitled: Building Loving Relationships…that’s why appropriately I’ve named the post after the title of the Sunday message. Well, firstly, God created us for fellowships and to build loving relationships not just with most importantly God but with the people around us whether close or not.
Relationships
We are the body of Christ, we created for relationships and we need to establish relationships with each other: Yea, so we are all part of the body of Christ, this means that we are all in one family, the family of God, so what we do to another person, we are doing to God. We are all meant to have relationships with one another. For me, this means that I truly, yes, need to have friends, and right now yea I don’t really have the friendships that God wants me to have I believe. But, this time I’m not concerned about that fact, I’m more concerned about the fact that truly, more that I cannot just sit still and say that I have no friends and say as long as I have a relationship with God it doesn’t matter, though true it is not as important, but actually since we are all one body in Christ, without friendships I am not in actual fact experiencing God in as complete a way that we ought to and are created for. Agreed then, more has to be done…but I’m aware that not by my strength but by God’s almighty power should I go about this. Although, actually I do think I make a good friend…ok yea but still I know I need God’s help truly, well, seriously we all do.
Loving
Parts of the body are to have concern for each other, Loving God means loving one another and we need to love one another: So, if we say we love the Lord, then we should be loving everyone, for all of us no matter who we are and what our backgrounds are part of the body of Christ and not just having relationships with one another but loving one another. God loved us so much that He gave us His son, who died for our sins…therefore we should love Him and since He died for everyone so we are all part of the body of Christ, we must love everyone whether we like it or not but truly if one loves God, it should not even be an obligation to love others but much rather a great joy. Loving each other as a body of Christ means that we are concerned for one another because since we are part of the body of Christ, whatever happens to another brother or sister in Christ it affects us, it is our business. If we don’t show concern for anyone who needs it, be it someone in need of friends or whoever that is in need then we are not doing ourselves any good for that person and you are in essence one in the body of Christ. Again, of course, the motivation is not for ourselves but for God’s glory and the body of Christ.
Building
Each part building up each other, making an effort in the building relationships and the need to build loving relationships with each other: Just as we love the Lord, we love His people, we definitely will want to help build each other up not tear each other down as it brings no good to anyone or even ourselves other than to help each other. We cannot sit back and do nothing and expect to build relationships, clearly effort needs to be put in and by our own strength we cannot accomplish that, we need to draw strength from the Lord. Take myself for instance, I’m a really quiet person, seriously I don’t know how at all I’m going to speak up and make friends, but only by God’s strength can I really truly build relationships. And, of course it works both ways, and we need to try to bring everyone together and grow in relationships with one another, God created people some extroverts some introverts so that we have people to complement one another and so we must also make an effort to reach out to other people and help everyone in building up some form of relationship. Of course, it is impossible to spend 100% of our time for everyone to build loving relationships, and that’s where an example was brought out, in that Jesus had 12 disciples but concentred His attention on a select few, that is not to say that we should resort to exclusion. So yea, we truly need to build loving relationships for that is God’s will for us and that should be our desire to love God and His people..
Finally, I just hope to really do my best for the Lord in trying to build loving relationships for truly I love the Lord and people. Even at times, it may seem hard or we don’t feel like it, truly we can pray to God to give us the strength. And, through our love for others we can truly glorify the Lord who is worthy of all glory and we can shine for God and bring others to Christ. It is my desire to live for the glory of God and to live according to His will and purpose for my life and to fully experience the love of God, therefore, I’m just praying that God will show me the way and help me to really make friends so that I may live the way God intends for me.
“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it”…(1 Cor 12:27)
So, truly let us build loving relationships, for we are the body of Christ…
The message on Sunday was entitled: Building Loving Relationships…that’s why appropriately I’ve named the post after the title of the Sunday message. Well, firstly, God created us for fellowships and to build loving relationships not just with most importantly God but with the people around us whether close or not.
Relationships
We are the body of Christ, we created for relationships and we need to establish relationships with each other: Yea, so we are all part of the body of Christ, this means that we are all in one family, the family of God, so what we do to another person, we are doing to God. We are all meant to have relationships with one another. For me, this means that I truly, yes, need to have friends, and right now yea I don’t really have the friendships that God wants me to have I believe. But, this time I’m not concerned about that fact, I’m more concerned about the fact that truly, more that I cannot just sit still and say that I have no friends and say as long as I have a relationship with God it doesn’t matter, though true it is not as important, but actually since we are all one body in Christ, without friendships I am not in actual fact experiencing God in as complete a way that we ought to and are created for. Agreed then, more has to be done…but I’m aware that not by my strength but by God’s almighty power should I go about this. Although, actually I do think I make a good friend…ok yea but still I know I need God’s help truly, well, seriously we all do.
Loving
Parts of the body are to have concern for each other, Loving God means loving one another and we need to love one another: So, if we say we love the Lord, then we should be loving everyone, for all of us no matter who we are and what our backgrounds are part of the body of Christ and not just having relationships with one another but loving one another. God loved us so much that He gave us His son, who died for our sins…therefore we should love Him and since He died for everyone so we are all part of the body of Christ, we must love everyone whether we like it or not but truly if one loves God, it should not even be an obligation to love others but much rather a great joy. Loving each other as a body of Christ means that we are concerned for one another because since we are part of the body of Christ, whatever happens to another brother or sister in Christ it affects us, it is our business. If we don’t show concern for anyone who needs it, be it someone in need of friends or whoever that is in need then we are not doing ourselves any good for that person and you are in essence one in the body of Christ. Again, of course, the motivation is not for ourselves but for God’s glory and the body of Christ.
Building
Each part building up each other, making an effort in the building relationships and the need to build loving relationships with each other: Just as we love the Lord, we love His people, we definitely will want to help build each other up not tear each other down as it brings no good to anyone or even ourselves other than to help each other. We cannot sit back and do nothing and expect to build relationships, clearly effort needs to be put in and by our own strength we cannot accomplish that, we need to draw strength from the Lord. Take myself for instance, I’m a really quiet person, seriously I don’t know how at all I’m going to speak up and make friends, but only by God’s strength can I really truly build relationships. And, of course it works both ways, and we need to try to bring everyone together and grow in relationships with one another, God created people some extroverts some introverts so that we have people to complement one another and so we must also make an effort to reach out to other people and help everyone in building up some form of relationship. Of course, it is impossible to spend 100% of our time for everyone to build loving relationships, and that’s where an example was brought out, in that Jesus had 12 disciples but concentred His attention on a select few, that is not to say that we should resort to exclusion. So yea, we truly need to build loving relationships for that is God’s will for us and that should be our desire to love God and His people..
Finally, I just hope to really do my best for the Lord in trying to build loving relationships for truly I love the Lord and people. Even at times, it may seem hard or we don’t feel like it, truly we can pray to God to give us the strength. And, through our love for others we can truly glorify the Lord who is worthy of all glory and we can shine for God and bring others to Christ. It is my desire to live for the glory of God and to live according to His will and purpose for my life and to fully experience the love of God, therefore, I’m just praying that God will show me the way and help me to really make friends so that I may live the way God intends for me.
“Now you are the body of Christ, and each one of you is a part of it”…(1 Cor 12:27)
So, truly let us build loving relationships, for we are the body of Christ…
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