Is there any encouragement from belonging to Christ? Any comfort from his love? Any fellowship together in the Spirit? Are your hearts tender and compassionate? Then make me truly happy by agreeing wholeheartedly with each other, loving one another, and working together with one mind and purpose. Don’t be selfish; don’t try to impress others. Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourselves. Don’t look out only for your own interests, but take an interest in others, too. Philippians 2:1-4
Today is week five of a five-week devotional series entitled, “Marriage, Family, and Beyond.” We have just recently celebrated Mother’s Day and Father’s Day. So, it seems fitting to provide such a series as this. This series is for people building toward marriage, married couples, and those whose marriages didn’t work out. It is for those who hope to have children, have children, and those without children (or raised children) who seek to bless the children in the sphere of their lives. It is for all of us who want to be better equipped to bless the next generation by being people of faith who pass their faith forward. It is for all of us who want to be kingdom people with great relationships in all areas of life including the church, the family, the neighborhood, the workplace, and the world (marketplace).
We hope the “Marriage, Family, and Beyond” devotional series will encourage you, challenge you, and guide you as you seek to walk with God in these all-important areas of life. The series is a compilation of separate weeks of Devotional material. They were selected and put together because they all contribute very nicely to this emphasis. This series has five weeks of Devotional material with two weeks having six Devotionals and three having five.
Week One: Marriage for a Lifetime. Week Two: Raising Kids to Live Fully. Week Three: Passing Our Faith to the Next Generation. Week Four: God’s Faith Filled People. Week Five: The Stewardship of Relationships. We begin Week Five, The Stewardship of Relationships, with the following:
Tensions in relationships are quite commonplace. This comes from the fact that people at their core are selfish. We want what we want, and we want others to do what we want. Each day this week we will look at one of the many settings in which relationships take place. The problem of tensions in relationships because of selfishness runs through all the settings we will be looking at this week. The setting for relationships we are looking at today is the “church.”
We would like to think that tension in relationships would be minimal for churches, but unfortunately more often than not, selfishness in our churches runs rampant. You would think that churches would be uniquely suited to having healthy relationships filled with love and selflessness. While our church is low on tension filled relationships due to selfishness, most of us have experienced other churches where this is not the case. Today’s Scripture gives us insight into why this is and the transformation that is needed.
When tensions run high in relationships within the setting of the church, it is more than likely that God’s people are not experiencing “encouragement from belonging to Christ, “comfort from his love,” fellowship together in the Spirit,” and “hearts (that are) tender and compassionate.” Vibrant connections with Christ produce vibrant connections between God’s people. In turn vibrant connections between God’s people foster vibrant connections with Christ.
When this spiritual cycle is alive and well, then God’s people will readily find themselves “agreeing wholeheartedly with each other,” “loving one another,” “working together with one mind and purpose,” “not being selfish and trying to impress others,” “being humble and thinking of others as better than themselves,” and “not looking out only for their own interests but taking an interest in others.”
Lord, may I always be one who contributes to the health and welfare of the church by promoting peace and unity in all my relationships with other believers in Christ. Continue to produce in me a vibrant connection with you and grant me vibrant connections with a circle of other believers that supports and fosters in me an ongoing vibrant connection with you, Lord. Amen!
