28 May Hopes & Habits (Because you can’t have uphill hopes and downhill habits) Part 32

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Last week we jumped into our “Four Righteous Relationship Choices”:

  1. Nurture your most important relationships (Prov. 14:19).  

Relationships are much like our stomachs:  big in…big out!  

Remember this:  If the grass is greener on the other side, they have a higher water bill!

2. Restore some broken relationships (Eph. 4:32)

We then shared two Forgiveness Facets:

  1. Forgiveness is the ability to let go of the vengeance without letting go of the justice.  In other words, you must let go of the desire to hurt those who have hurt you.  Our God is a forgiving God but He is also a God who is just. For example, if your child has been abused by a person you must forgive that person and let go of vengeance.  However it does not mean that the abuser shouldn’t be put in jail…that is justice!
  2. Unforgiveness is like lighting yourself on fire and hoping the offender dies of smoke inhalation!

3. Sever  harmful relationships (I Cor. 15:33) There are some relationships in our lives that are absolutely toxic…sever them!

Now let’s continue with…

4. Initiate some meaningful relationships (Prov. 18:24)

Some people think relationships will just automatically happen.  It’s like the farmer who sits in the middle of a field and expects the cow to simply back up to him and give him milk!  That’s “udderly” ridiculous!

Please allow me to share with you Two Initiative Items:

  1. If you go to church to find a friend, you won’t find them anywhere.  If you go to church to be a friend, you will find them everywhere!
  2. You can’t do life by yourself (Prov. 18:21)

Here the Bible says, “A man who isolates himself seeks his own desire; He rages against all wise judgment.”

Remember this:  “One” is way too small a number to succeed.  

If you ever see a turtle on a fence post you know he didn’t get there by himself!  God hard wired us the same way. We can’t get to the top by ourselves! When God created the world he looked at His creation and said over and over again, “It is good”, with one notable exception…He looked at man being alone and said “It is not good.”