Relationships that Reward
Whenever God is active we need to be aware that the enemy is active as well. One such way that the enemy cripples the follower of Christ is by attacking our spiritual self image. If you have ever had a thought come into your mind such as, “I’m no good.” Or how about this one: “I will never amount to anything.” Maybe, at some point in your life you thought to yourself “I am a failure.” “I am a nobody.”
These thoughts if we allow them to can drive us to despair. However, these thoughts are not godly thoughts they are in fact from the enemy. We as Christians need a proper God image and a proper spiritual self image. If either of these is crippled, your spiritual walk will be hindered in lame. The Lord desires to build us to maturity in all areas of our life concerning our thoughts about him, ourselves and others. The enemy not only tries and destroy our image of a Holy God, and the Image God has for us, but he also attacks our image of others.
When people care deeply for each other, they express how they feel about each other. The Lord has often talked to us in his word about how he feels about us. Whenever you truly read, hear and apply the word of God to your life there’s no way to walk around with a bad self-image or to live life discouraged. Your self worth is never attacked by the Lord. As you read the Scripture one thing is clear the God who created us cares extremely for us. There is overwhelming evidence in the Scriptures that we are extremely valuable to the Lord.
All that God has ever done, he did have a family, a bride, a living temple. The reality is today we are his children, all of us! (We who have embraced Jesus Christ as our Savior, we are the bride of Christ!) We are more than his project: We are valuable, precious, and special to him. So special in fact, that God had one of his servants offer encouragement to the believers that would stand throughout eternity: Ephesians 1: 18 I pray that the eyes of your heart may be enlightened in order that you may know the hope to which he has called you, the riches of his glorious inheritance in his holy people, 19 and his incomparably great power for us who believe. That power is the same as the mighty strength 20 he exerted when he raised Christ from the dead and seated him at his right hand in the heavenly realms,
So rest assured, any mental attack of yourself worth does not come from the father who is in heaven that comes from the enemy. God the father will correct your behavior, but he will never condemn your worth. Also, any desire to hold ill feelings toward others is not from God, but from the evil one.
It is the enemy who sends all such thoughts as: “I’m no good.” “I’ll never amount to anything.” “I’m a failure.” “I’m a nobody.” “I’m not important.” It is the enemy who sends these thoughts in our heads as: “I’ll show them.” “just wait until I am able to get them back.” “One of these days, I’ll give them what they deserve.”
God said to his servants in Ephesians 1:18 that we are his inheritance and we are His holy People! To other churches, the churches of Corinthians and Colossians, he said we are the children of God are his “dear ones”. Whenever the Holy Spirit speaks to you about your self-worth, he is constantly building you up not tearing you down. Whenever God directs us to think about others, he called us to build one another up!
When I think about the apostle Paul ministering to all of these churches it is often the case that Paul wrote a letter to correct the church’s behavior or attitude and sometimes both. One the most difficult churches and challenges that Paul ministered to was the church of Corinth. And in Paul’s first letter to the Corinthians, even though the apostle knew all their sinful and evil ways, he was led by the Holy Spirit to build them up. Paul made many positive statements to the Corinthian believers. It was only after Paul had established who they were in Jesus Christ he proceeded to correct their behavior.
You see, I happen to believe that we hear God’s voice not only when he convicts us of our sin, but also when he helps us recognize the value he places on people in the self-worth of individuals.
As we relate to one another God begins to show us how he sees people. Because God loves people I should let people. Because God has a great passion for the people of this world I should have a great passion for the people of this world.
A decade ago I was in Louisiana pastoring and ministering to a very special and precious people. I will never forget one individual, who despise me, and opposed me on many levels every chance given both publicly and privately. owned large part of the church membership knew, What a lemon this individual was! and I was very tempted to get back at this person. There were many times I wanted, this person just to leave the church, or at the very least expose them for who perceived them to be.
But our Lord, in all of his love and wisdom would not let me do anything except to try and build a relationship and bridge the brokenness. It did not come easy, and it did not come quickly. But at the end of 5 years, when I was making my way to transition to another church, this individual came to me and hugged my neck and with tears running down their eyes this person told me that they loved me.
Here’s the reality today: Our relationships with people depend largely upon our perception of them. would need to ask ourselves a very serious question: how can we see others in the right way? beneath their mask in the front they often present to others? the answer is to see others with the eyes of Christ.
Here lies the problem in all human relationships there’s a continuing degree of conflict. Conflict is a result of our many imperfections. These conflicts become fertile ground for the enemy to plant seeds in our hearts that can cause division among the brothers and sisters in Christ. The seeds of division sprout and bring dishonor to the name of Christ. Therefore we should be careful not to judge one another. You and I do not want judgment from another brother or sister, and to be perfectly honest they don’t want judgment from us. God was very careful to warn us that judgment will be merciless, to the one who shown no mercy.
As a pastor breaks my heart many times to watch members of my church recognize someone’s not been to church in several weeks but instead of caring enough to pick up the phone and find out why, we just shrug our shoulders and say, “ well they must’ve turned away from God.”
Maybe if we took the time to build a relationship with others we would find that depression has gotten a hold of them and they just need to be encouraged. Or someone is perhaps feelings that if they don’t look good enough to come to church they should not. But if we talked to the individual we could help them over come that perception. Furthermore, could we take that person shopping and thus show mercy? In doing so we put feet to our faith, and become the hands and feet of Christ in this generation.
Many, many times, if we apply the word of God to our lives we can watch as conflicts become an opportunity for the Lord to build brothers and sisters in closer relationships. The individuals who are committed to the Lords message will be tempered with mercy, while the individual who is an agent of the enemy will be heartened with revenge.
Jesus had a lot to say about judging. For example: “do not judge lest you be judged. For the way you judge you be judged in by your standard of measure, it will be measured to you” Matthew 7:1–2.
Please keep in mind that there’s a difference in making a moral judgment of right and wrong, and an eternal judgment of one’s soul. We take Matthew 7 out of context many times to mean that there should be no moral judgments are no moral standards in our nation. That simply isn’t the case. There is a moral standard to uphold. The context of Jesus’s words is clear, you and I are not to judge one’s eternal destiny because we cannot judge one’s soul.
One day the disciples were trying to process all that Jesus was teaching. The issue of forgiveness was on the minds of the disciples. Peter asked the Lord about the issue of forgiveness. “Lord, I often should we forgive a brother who sins against us? Up to 7 times?” Peter was probably surprised at the answer Jesus gave. Because Jesus said, “I do not say to you, up to 7 times, but the 70x7.” See Matthew 18.
The Lord was clear in offering forgiveness again and again and again it would begin to see the good in others. God will reveal to us the good in others, the things that are of him and by him. The things a good report those things are lovely and worthy of praise. We only see those things as we learn to forgive over and over.
The Lord was clear in offering forgiveness would become an instrument of love. God will reveal to you a simple and practical ways that you can become a channel of his love toward others. This does not happen if we stay filled with bitterness and resentment it only occurs as we learn to forgive one another.
The Lord was clear in offering forgiveness over and over again we begin to stand in one another’s shoes. It’s much easier to extend mercy for able to see one another’s perspectives. forgiveness helps us value one another because we begin to see life from their perspective not only ours.
The ways of the enemy are far different than the ways of God. The enemy values judgments the enemy values revenge the enemy values degrading thoughts about individuals, these things will only tear down relationships these things will only hinder progress in the kingdom.
The enemy has many ways to attack our faith. But, I believe there two areas that stand out to me today. God is very much aware of the enemy’s attacks on our faith. Satan will attack and bombard our faith by pointing our thoughts in certain directions to get us to doubt both the goodness of God and the Word of God.
First of all, the enemy will point us to constantly think about the negatives of our own and others’ past experiences. Sometimes we refer to this activity is holding a grudge. did in me distorts our thinking by reminding us of things in the past that were hurtful deceitful or simply sinful.
Second, the enemy will often point to our limitations in present circumstances. The enemy perverts our thoughts about what is happening right now. We begin to focus our thoughts on the many obstacles that stand in the way, and we begin to conclude “someone else should try because I can’t do it.”
As a child of God, we know that our faith be attacked by the enemy we should also know the Lord stand by his word and he can keep us focused on himself and his promises if we will ask and trust that he has and is the answer.
Statement of Truth: a merciful God helps us children to be merciful.
you see beloved today God’s way is building relationships not divisions. as we build relationships we begin to hear from him, and we begin to listen to God’s voice in very practical ways as we live out our lives interconnected to one another.
I want to invite you today to join me in the spirit of Hebrews 12:2 and fix your eyes on Jesus, who is the author and perfecter of our faith.
