JESUS PREACHED ABOUT A RELATIONSHIP WITH OURSELVES
Greetings in the name of Jesus:
Developing any kind of relationship takes a lot of work! I have had my own great difficulty with relationships, and I found that before we can get along with anyone else we must first deal with the relationship we have within ourselves.
That self-relationship is a major factor to our being able to relate to anyone else, and it begins through searching our own lives from the inside out. When I was younger I searched for the perfect person to fit me...when I think today just how in mature that thought is to find someone to fit you because it does absolutely no good unless you know who it is you are. Further more as people we are constantly changing, growing and hopefully getting better at life. Jesus pointed to a different direction for us to relate to people, and that was to make ourselves adapt to the needs of others.
We live within our own skin to the degree that it is easy for us to feel that everyone around us must think and feel in the same ways we do about life, and the experiences of life around us. The fact is that we are all unique within our own created spirit with a self will that very often tends to clash with those around us. I have often said it is like going out on a football field to play the game while wearing Scooba gear for swimming! Our thoughts and reasoning does not always line up with those around us, and to think that everyone else has to have the same process of thought and emotional values that we have just does not work. Jesus spoke to us of the core problem within our ability to relate to one another as loving others as much as we loved ourselves. Jesus knew that the hurdle of getting rid of all self would be impossible so He asked us to love one another like we love ourselves in order to bridge that gap.
We are made up of the emotional responses that we have given or developed through the experiences that we have had in this life. It is always impossible for us to predict how each of us will respond to the exact same kind of experience. In a situation of prolonged hate and torture some people would turn out spewing hate and torture while another would turn perhaps to love and care of others all the more. We react differently , and we think differently; and it is that uniqueness that causes God to need our personal will to love Him tested in this life. It become our personal decision as to what we will do with Jesus as Lord of our lives that matter the most. This cannot be a group decision or made by a corporate edict for all member to adhere to...it must be personal to us alone. God begins to work on the source of who we are. He begins the transformation inside of us in a way that only we could recognize at first because it is so deep within us no one else can see it. The very identification that we have of self will change as the power of God's Spirit is allowed to dig deeper within us to awaken the created being and purpose in our lives. This process takes a tremendous amount of soul searching and time spent in discovering who we are because we are very intricate creations, and designed after God Himself. Scripture tells us that this process is much like looking into a mirror for the details of who we see there. At first we may look and forget what we look like, but as we continue to come back to that reflection of self we will see things that we have missed in other trips to that mirror. If we keep looking and searching we may well see the good within us , but we will also see that which needs to be changed.
In reality it becomes the view that we have of ourselves that effects the relationships we have with one another because we cannot love or hate something in another person that we do not first love or hate within ourselves. For many of us this has been an untouched part of relationships that we have never taken time nor have we been shown how much it effects us and those we should be able to love in Christ. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
Developing any kind of relationship takes a lot of work! I have had my own great difficulty with relationships, and I found that before we can get along with anyone else we must first deal with the relationship we have within ourselves.
That self-relationship is a major factor to our being able to relate to anyone else, and it begins through searching our own lives from the inside out. When I was younger I searched for the perfect person to fit me...when I think today just how in mature that thought is to find someone to fit you because it does absolutely no good unless you know who it is you are. Further more as people we are constantly changing, growing and hopefully getting better at life. Jesus pointed to a different direction for us to relate to people, and that was to make ourselves adapt to the needs of others.
We live within our own skin to the degree that it is easy for us to feel that everyone around us must think and feel in the same ways we do about life, and the experiences of life around us. The fact is that we are all unique within our own created spirit with a self will that very often tends to clash with those around us. I have often said it is like going out on a football field to play the game while wearing Scooba gear for swimming! Our thoughts and reasoning does not always line up with those around us, and to think that everyone else has to have the same process of thought and emotional values that we have just does not work. Jesus spoke to us of the core problem within our ability to relate to one another as loving others as much as we loved ourselves. Jesus knew that the hurdle of getting rid of all self would be impossible so He asked us to love one another like we love ourselves in order to bridge that gap.
We are made up of the emotional responses that we have given or developed through the experiences that we have had in this life. It is always impossible for us to predict how each of us will respond to the exact same kind of experience. In a situation of prolonged hate and torture some people would turn out spewing hate and torture while another would turn perhaps to love and care of others all the more. We react differently , and we think differently; and it is that uniqueness that causes God to need our personal will to love Him tested in this life. It become our personal decision as to what we will do with Jesus as Lord of our lives that matter the most. This cannot be a group decision or made by a corporate edict for all member to adhere to...it must be personal to us alone. God begins to work on the source of who we are. He begins the transformation inside of us in a way that only we could recognize at first because it is so deep within us no one else can see it. The very identification that we have of self will change as the power of God's Spirit is allowed to dig deeper within us to awaken the created being and purpose in our lives. This process takes a tremendous amount of soul searching and time spent in discovering who we are because we are very intricate creations, and designed after God Himself. Scripture tells us that this process is much like looking into a mirror for the details of who we see there. At first we may look and forget what we look like, but as we continue to come back to that reflection of self we will see things that we have missed in other trips to that mirror. If we keep looking and searching we may well see the good within us , but we will also see that which needs to be changed.In reality it becomes the view that we have of ourselves that effects the relationships we have with one another because we cannot love or hate something in another person that we do not first love or hate within ourselves. For many of us this has been an untouched part of relationships that we have never taken time nor have we been shown how much it effects us and those we should be able to love in Christ. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.
THE UNWORTHY SERVANT
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