Relationships

Have you ever thought about the different kinds of relationships that you have with people?  You have relationships with co-workers on the job, you may have a service orientated relationship with a sales associate at a store, a close friendship with a few individuals and hopefully a loving, giving and intimate relationship with your spouse.  Then there are the various relationships with your neighbors, church friends, and with those who may exercise some authority over you such as your boss, your pastor, or the mayor of your city.  You may know and respect these individuals but yet you are not really close to them.

That’s about the type of relationship that I had with God up into my high school years.  Because of my church attendance, schooling and the example set forth by the nuns and priests, I knew about God and had a deep respect and honor for Him.  But I really didn’t know Him for who He really is.  It wasn’t until I met my wife that I finally began to learn about His love and the reality of His being our loving heavenly Father who cares deeply for me.  She knew this most important foundational aspect of God and the more time I spent with her the more I learned about Him and His love.  It was her consistent, daily, living, breathing example of His love that brought me into a personal relationship with Him.

One of the most important lessons I have learned over the years since then, and especially magnified over the last four years in particular, is that the more an individual relates to Jesus, the more they will be able to relate to people.  I’ve mentioned before of how I have come to see that LOVE is an action taken.  It is not just a bunch of nice sounding words, but it is putting the love of God into motion by your physical acts of kindness and care toward others.

I Peter 4:1 tells us to “take the same attitude the he (Christ) had.” (God’s Word ©)  What was His attitude toward those who needed salvation?  Toward those who were hurting?  He reached out in love.  He went into their homes, their places of business and got to know them while He physically assisted them.  He cried with those who were sad and rejoiced with those who were happy.  Jesus met people where they were at.  He looked passed the physical attributes of the people, beyond their potential wrong doings and simply loved and respected them for who they were.

I Peter 4:8 explains His responses to the messiness of people’s lives by saying that “Love (the God kind on agape love) covers many sins.” (God’s Word ©)  The word “covers” means just that.  Strong’s defines it as “to hide or cover up.”  Thayer likens it to putting a veil over a person’s indiscretions.  When Jesus looked at people, He looked past their sins and/or faults. He put aside any personal prejudice and ministered to their needs. 

As we follow Jesus’ example, we will discover that while these actions do not necessarily change the people or their sin, it will change the way that we look at them and enable us the freedom to love them as Jesus would!  It gives us the same attitude as Jesus.  And the more we relate to Him, the more that we get to personally know and experience His love, the more we will be able to relate to others and be conduits of His love toward them.

So how would you qualify your relationship with Jesus today?  How would you qualify your relationship to the hurting and needy around you, in your family, in your church, at your job, or in the house next door to you?  Your answer to either of these questions will most likely give you the answer to the other!  Think about it!  Have a great day.  Stay in tune to His Word, and keep asking yourself… “What am I expecting today?”