Many Christians go to church on Sunday, but when they come back home, they face the same problems, the same mess. They live a defeated life. The wife does not submit to the husband, the husband does not love the wife, the children are disobedient. Relationship problems such as these can give a lot of headache to any of us. We expect victory, but we find out that most of the time we feel like a failure.
Many Christians go to church on Sunday, but when they come back home, they face the same problems, the same mess. They live a defeated life. The wife does not submit to the husband, the husband does not love the wife, the children are disobedient. Relationship problems such as these can give a lot of headache to any of us. We expect victory, but we find out that most of the time we feel like a failure.
Then the devil will try to attack our mind, by saying that it’s useless to go to church, it’s even useless to be a Christian because no changes take place in our lives. People who like to entertain negative thoughts will agree with the devil and stop going to church and stop being a Christian altogether. Actually, what we need to know is the fact that going to church alone is not enough. What we need is a relationship with God, a personal relationship.
When we are close to God, we will be able to hear His heartbeat; we will come to know His thoughts and plans. We will know what His will is in our lives. Our character will be transformed to be like Christ (that’s the real meaning of being a Christian by the way, to be Christ-like). Then we will know how to love others the way Jesus loves all of us. We need to be in a good relationship with God, in order to have great relationship with others.
Galatians 5:22-23, “But the fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, longsuffering, kindness, goodness, faithfulness, gentleness, self-control. Against such there is no law.” Who will ever have problems with someone who is so loving; joyful and peaceful though in the middle of a crisis; patient towards our weakness; kind and good hearted; faithful through thick and thin; gentle in speech; practices self-control in all his conduct? No one!
That’s exactly why we need to be close to God. We won’t be able to obtain this fruit of the Spirit by ourselves. It is the work of the Holy Spirit in us. These character traits are the very nature of Christ. We can only obtain it, if we join our life to His. John 15:4-5, “Abide in Me, and I in you. As the branch cannot bear fruit of itself, unless it abides in the vine, neither can you, unless you abide in Me. I am the vine, you are the branches. He who abides in Me, and I in him, bears much fruit; for without Me you can do nothing.”
Let’s make a commitment today to be in a close relationship with God, so our character can be changed to be like Him. Thus we will be able to minimize relationship problems in our lives. Do not expect others to change, until we start the change within ourselves. (DC)
