It's All About Relationships

Have you ever read Proverbs 18 - slowly - verse by verse and listened carefully to what is being said by the writer?  The underlying theme of this chapter as I see it is relationships.  Verse one states " A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; he rages against all wise judgement."  and the final verse - verse 24 ends with "A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother."

Intermingled throughout the entire chapter you will find little golden nuggets of truth that will help you build strong relationships with God and with people.  Words like understanding, and humility.  Warnings about slothfulness and contention.  Encouragement about the righteous running to God (our strong tower).  How haughtiness brings about destruction, but humility brings honor.  How speaking out before you know the facts is folly and brings shame.  Think about what these verses are saying.  We are to acquire knowledge and understanding and put our God given gifts to work.  Avoid being offended, and do not allow contentions to have a place in our lives.  Be careful what you say because "Death and life are in the power of the tongue..."  Verse 22 says "He who finds a wife finds a good thing, and obtains favor from the Lord."  These are all indicators of relationships, strong or otherwise!  God is interested in our relationships.  He created us to need and have relationships.  Good relationships with each other and with Him - especially with Him!

Verse 14 says "The spirit of a man will sustain him in sickness, but who can bear a broken spirit?"  What is more heart-breaking than a broken relationship?  When a relationship is broken, I believe our spirit is forever affected.  It pains me to witness families disintegrate at the loss of a loved one, and the battles afterward that break out all too often over who did or did not help when they could have; or when arguments erupt over who gets the trinkets that the loved one left behind.  My heart aches for couples in the throes of divorce, and the children caught up in events that they neither caused nor have control over.  And when old friends part company over a silly disagreement.  The saddest of all broken relationships are the ones that never were because an unborn child has been aborted because it was unwanted or inconvenient.  This is not what our Lord wants for us!

When Jesus was asked what the most important commandments were, Jesus replied "The foremost is, hear O Israel!  The Lord our God is one Lord; and you shall love the Lord your God with all your heart, and with all your soul, and with all your mind, and with all your strength' the second is this, 'You shall love your neighbor as yourself.'  There is no other commandment greater than these."  This simple reply from our Lord is the essence of relationships.  And if you recall the proverb of the Good Samaritan, Jesus told us essentially that everyone is our neighbor.
So my challenge this week is a simple one.  Prayerfully read Proverbs 18, and ask the Holy Spirit to help you to evaluate your relationships.  Then do your best to strengthen each and every one.  Have a blessed week.