The Foundation of Healthy Relationships

    

 As strange as it may sound, Christians exist on two realms: physical and spiritual. Imagine the cross: the vertical bar represents the relationship with God, and the horizontal the relationships with others.    In order to pursue that primary relationship, our relationship with God,  a desire within the heart to pursue God, is necessary.

David aptly describes this desire with these words, “As the deer pants for the water brook, so my soul pants for You, O God. (Psalms 42:1 NIV) The question then becomes: How does a person a person pant after God? How does a person pursue a relationship with God? 

So far, I have learned that the following are critical:

·      Conversation with God. At any time of the day, but morning is best.  Before the noise of the day, begins. This is when we tap into our well, and he provides a cool drink of water to quench parched spirits and thirsty souls. We tell God, we ask him, we express thanks.  

·      Listening.  We can learn a lot about who God is by paying attention to what he has said to others.  God’s interactions with mankind from Genesis to Revelation show just how intensely he has been trying to reach us since the beginning of time. Revelation 3:20 emphasizes that point: “Behold I stand at the door and knock. if any man hears my voice, and opens the door, I will come in to him, and will sup with him, and he with me.”  (NIV) With persistence and love, God calls us. 

·      Community. This where our horizontal relationships come in.  Living in a fallen world makes living the Christian life a difficult proposition. There is a force out there, aka Satan, who is trying to destroy us.  He could be a wolf in sheep’s clothing “… a roaring lion, walking about, seeking whom he may devour.” (I Peter 5:8 NIV)).  Our best hope for living healthy lives is to add to our relationship with God spiritual relationships with people of the faith.   

When we nurture our relationship with God and with others in the faith, we can live healthy Christian lives--not flawless nor problem-free, but lives pointing toward right being, right thinking and speaking, right loving and living.