Bringing Your Relationships Into Focus - Day 5

One of the ways that God blesses our lives is through our friendships. Through the Godly relationships that we have in our lives that help us to become more like God. God tells us that the law and the prophets can be summed up by loving God with all of our heart, soul, strength, and mind, and also by loving others.

God created us to need friends. He created us to need people in our lives. And when our relationships with other people are not quite right, there is a big emptiness in our lives. And the emptiness is called loneliness. Loneliness is like a warning light. It’s like a “check engine” light in a car. If you have ever been driving your car and all of a sudden the check engine light comes on and it starts blinking, it’s a warning light that there is a bigger problem that you need to check out. A lot of us live our lives and we are feeling loneliness and it’s like the check engine light and it’s flashing. Is your “check engine” light flashing today? Are you dealing with loneliness and are your relationships not quite what you know they should be?

I know it seems odd to talk about loneliness, after all, we are around people everyday. Some of you may even feel lonely even though you are surrounded by people at work or at school. But you can still struggle with loneliness, even when you are around other people. In fact, sociologists called it crowded loneliness because we are surrounded by so many people, but we have so few real genuine connections with the people who are around us.

We talk about being a disciple of Christ, a fully devoted follower that follows the example of Christ. When we look at how Jesus lived, we see that Christ didn't live life by himself, instead he poured out his life for others. He focused on and trained 12 disciples, he taught hundreds more, but everything he did was for others. He even ultimately gave his own life, willingly for us. Jesus knew what it meant to be a friend, a true friend.

Here are 5 things that you need to do to bring your relationships into focus.

1. You need to put yourself in a position to meet people.
Jesus was known for this, he didn't stay in an upper room, afraid of the world. The religious leaders accused him of being a friend of sinners. Why, because he went to their world to share his message. He didn't wait for them to come to him.

In Act 2:46-47, we learn about the first century church; “They worshipped together at the Temple each day (in the big group) and they met in homes for the Lord’s supper, and shared their meals with great joy and generosity, all the while praising God and enjoying the good will of all the people. And each day the Lord added to their group those who were being saved.”

so the example in Scripture includes bigger gatherings where we are taught and encouraged and challenged, but it also includes doing life together during the week. Sharing meals and celebrating the Lord's supper. And here is what is amazing about that – there is something attractive about living that type of life. About modeling that type of friendship, that others sere it and want to share in it. Let me just ask you, when is the last time you had over friends for dinner, let's take it one step further. Have you ever celebrated the Lord's supper together with another family outside of church.


2. You need to provide encouragement.
There are really two types of people in the world. There are those types of people who add value to your life, that when you are with them. They make you feel better about yourself. They motivate you. They challenge you to become a better person than you are. Then there are those people in life that just suck the life out of you whenever they are around. You know what I’m talking about. You dread to see them come. Every time they are around, you feel worse about yourself, and about your situation.

The thing is there are two types of people in the world. There are encouragers and there are discouragers. And we each have both kinds of people in our lives. We are each either an encourager or a discourager. And some of us are both, depending on what situation we find ourselves in. The Bible is clear. If we want to bring our relationships into focus, we need to be encouragers.

3. You need to play together.
By playing together, I mean having fun together. Enjoying a shared activity. It makes you forget about work. It makes you forget about the problems you are dealing with in life. It makes you smile. Enjoy a fun activity.

Look at what Ecclesiastes 8:15 says. It says, “So I recommend having fun because there is nothing better for people to do in this world but to eat, drink and enjoy life. And that way, they will experience some happiness along with the hard work that God gives them.”

You can have fun in a way that honors Christ. So many non-Christians have this view of Christianity as being a “religion” where you have a list of everything that you can't do. They think of Christians as boring and serious. Why do they think that? Because they have seen us represent Christianity as more of a religion instead of a relationship. As Christians, we should have more fun than anybody, because we should be able to understand true joy in our lives based on our relationship with Jesus Christ.


4. You need to pray specifically for your friends.
Prayer is one of the most personal and meaningful actions that we could take on behalf of a friend. To pray for a friend by name, and to pray not for them by name, but to pray specifically for what they are going through, to pray for their relationships, to pray for their career, to pray for the financial difficulties or just whatever it is. Their health. To pray specifically for that friend.

And if you do that, two things will happen when you pray for a friend. First, if you are a follower of Jesus Christ, the Bible promises that when you pray, God will hear and will answer your prayers. So when you pray, I don’t exactly understand how this works, but God promises when we pray for someone, that God’s presence and His power come to bear on that situation. That our prayer makes a difference in their lives. The Holy Spirit also works in our life to increase our love for that person.

5. You need to pursue an opportunity to talk about God.
Here’s a question. Have you thought about where your friends stand with God? Have you thought about where your co-workers, your family members, your friends, have you thought about where they stand with God? I know it seems strange to many of you to talk about your faith with your family and friends and co-workers. It may be awkward, but a real friend will not hesitate to talk about their faith. Why? Because there are eternal consequences involved. A real friend understands a relationship with Jesus Christ is what determines whether a person spends eternity with God in Heaven or whether they spend eternity separated from God in a place the Bible calls hell.


Next steps for today

• You need to put yourself in a position to meet people.
• You need to provide encouragement.
• You need to play together.
• You need to pray specifically for your friends.
• You need to pursue an opportunity to talk about God.

Prayer for today:
Lord, help us to develop relationships in life that honor you. Help us to be encouragers, to be people that are committed to showing your love to our family, friends, and co-workers. Give us strength to love those who are not very lovable, and to be a friend to those who are lonely. We thank you for the love you have shown us through the love relationship that we share with our Lord and Savior, Jesus Christ.