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"But God didn’t make us to go through this life alone. Not only can we trust He is with us, He wants us to value and benefit from close relationship with fellow travelers on this path of life. That requires we have faith and take calculated risks on people. That cannot be done if we have ruled out particular kinds of people because they remind us of someone who has offended us in the past."
As quoted from the book "Victor - Breaking Free From a Victim-Based Society" by John H. Hovis Page 215.
I heard an interesting comment about the brain the other day. Left to our own devices, our brain is naturally wired to go to the negative. For some of us, our brains tend to go way negative. We are the glass half empty kinds of people. For others, our brains go negative but not so badly as to see the worst in all that comes against us. Those are the glass half full kinds of people. My wife is a glass half full person. She is fond of saying to us glass half empty kinds of folks - "Get a bigger glass!"
Just like our brains are wired to go negative, I believe we are also wired to default in ways that make relationship a difficult proposition. Some of us are naturally isolationists. We are the ones that love being alone. If fact, being alone seems to recharge our batteries. The alone time makes it possible for us to be able to deal with those times when relationship is what we are forced to deal with in this world.
Others of us are more naturally drawn to being with other people. For those types, being with others is what recharges their batteries. Being with others is what makes it possible to tolerate times when being alone is all they have.
For the people who find isolation to be as close to heaven as they will get, relationships are hard due to the fact being with others is a draining and trying experience. For those who tend to be more relationally inclined, relationships become something that they were never designed to be. It is when we view relationships as a chore, as the isolationalist tends to do, or as a strategy, as the relationalist tends to do, that the true power of relationships can be lost.
I believe that God designed relationships for a very specific purpose. Relationships were never meant to be a chore or a strategy to feeling good about ourselves. Relationships were meant to be part of the process for bringing about significant and life altering change in our world. It is when we play god with how we view and use relationships that the Heavenly purpose and power of the connections we make in this life tend to get lost.
Check out today's Bible reading as it relates to the power of relationships.
Again, truly I tell you that if two of you on earth agree about anything they ask for, it will be done for them by my Father in heaven. For where two or three gather in my name, there am I with them. Matthew 18:19-20 (NIV)
Twice in these verses the word "two" is used. The promises made about gathering together and agreeing are over the top amazing. God promises to give us whatever we agree on and that He will be with us when we gather. Doesn't get much better than that.
For those of you who use relationships to recharge your batteries, let me ask you a pretty direct question. Are you experiencing the kinds of miraculous change I believe this verse is saying can happen when we come together? For those of us who find relationship a chore, I have just as direct a question. Do you find it hard to experience God's presence in your life?
If we are really honest with ourselves, it doesn't matter what kind of person we are when it comes to relationships, the promises contained in our reading aren't happening like I think we would like them to be happening. It is my opinion we aren't seeing God's power and presence because we are applying a view of relationships in our lives that just doesn't match up with what God intended for the victor to experience.
If gathering together is a chore or if we are using our coming together for self focused purposes, it is impossible to gather together and agree in world changing ways. Our coming together for reasons other than being under the banner of God's name makes it so easy to miss the true power of God's plan for relationship in the first place.
I have always had this feeling that coming together should ALWAYS be viewed as a spiritual thing. You see, each and everyone of us carry the completeness of God inside of us. We don't do anything to get that completeness in us, He places it there. The Bible says Jesus lives in our hearts. It also says our bodies are a temple of the most High. God has chosen to take up residence in you and in me. If that weren't hard enough to understand, let's take this thinking a little bit further.
It is when two or more are gathered in, God formed and God planned relationship that the fullness of who God is, starts to shine through our coming together. It is like me being at a meeting brings the fullness of God. At the same time you being at the same meeting also brings the fullness of God. When we come together as His Children, that fullness is magnified in each of us and in the relationship that we are forming. With God, it isn't 1/2 + 1/2 = one whole. It is like one full plus one full equals infinity!
I've heard it said that God isn't into addition, He's into multiplication. He is uniquely able to take what we think is a portion and, mix with what someone else thinks is just a portion, and turn that into a magnitude way beyond anything we could have ever thought or experienced. That's why I think God is so promising in today's Bible reading when it comes to relationships. It is when we come together that the Heavenly potential of God's power can be released in this world.
One caveat I need to express here or I'm afraid victim thinking will begin to rear its ugly head. What that Godly power is to look like is completely and unquestionably up to God to make happen. Our expectations as to what that power is going to be mean absolutely nothing to the sovereign God that loves us so. Come together and watch God's Power be released, but let God decide what that power is going to look like as a result of you meeting together in His Name.
The victor's life you want to live today can't be had in isolation. It also can't be had as we live a relational strategy bent on bringing good feelings into our lives. Your victor status will be seen as you come into relationship the way God does. He comes together with the motivation of love. That love takes on a different look with each and every connection God makes. That's how we are to enter into the relationships we come across today. Let God's love empower your connections in ways that make His power something to behold as you live out your victor status today.
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