God has invited us to live in a spiritual community. That invitation to relationships provides many good things.
But we must work to maintain the right relationships. And we often fail. So will those we share ourselves with.
Where does this leave us?
Christ is the High Priest who understands our pain (Hebrews 4:15). We do not need to resort to escapism. We can face the difficulties squarely, calling for help from that Great Helper.
Living in a fallen world is not easy. But temporary sadness gives way to deeper gladness when we live our lives inside the One who loves us most. And when we pursue healthy relationships with others who help us become better at receiving that Divine Love.
I love this. I am independent but that doesn’t mean I need good friends to lean on. I never knew many friends until like last year. I do know the importants for good community and friends that encourage you and hold you accountable. It is so important. God never intended for us to live life alone. “As iron sharpens iron,
so one person sharpens another.” (Proverbs 27:17 NIV)
Good, healthy, encouraging relationships are hard to find, and even harder to maintain. There has to be work on both sides and a good bit of sacrifice and compromise. We should seek relationships that encourage us and give us fresh air, while also challenging us in good ways. I try to be friendly to everyone but there are few that I am very close with. This is something that I have to work on because I struggle to give the proper amount of time and devotion to a relationship that it needs compared to everything else I am doing. I always want people to feel that they are more valuable and worth my time than anything else that I am doing.
I can say living in a Spiritual Community is very hard to do, especially when you feel like you do not have time to maintain relationships or make new ones, and you are introverted. Working a part-time job, taking eighteen credit hours of college courses, and being married are so hard when it comes to making relationships especially here at the college. I do not live on campus anymore, so it is very difficult to be in contact with friends. The schedule change has also made it hard because I do not even see one of my friends at all throughout the week. What makes this even more difficult is I am terrible about keeping in contact with people through the phone. I prefer in-person conversations. I am making relationships in the Church, but on Campus and maintaining relationships with friends I already do have here, has been a struggle.
This is something I have dealt a lot with throughout my time at Emmanuel! My freshman year, I didn’t try at all to form any relationships. I became a robot who woke up, went to class, practice, and back to my room to be by myself. I thought that that was the type of peaceful life I enjoyed, but I have since realized that I find even more peace in working hard to maintain the friendships I have found. I have found help in my friend’s support as it is a reflection of God’s love!
It is no surprise that the enemy attacks our relationships as hard as he does. We were created for community. Godly friendships strengthen us because it is much harder to listen to and believe the enemy when we have wise sounding boards. It is much easier to seek wise counsel when we have safe spaces to go to. These relationships must be cultivated and tended to. This can be incredibly difficult, but are that much more worthwhile.
I believe that good Godly relationships that are spiritually mature can sometimes be hard to come by. When we do come by the relationships we need to be intentional about maintaining the relationship. For me, I need to be intentional about maintaining the good friendships I have as well as feeding the new good relationships in my life! Love this post!
Time and time again people have left me down. But God has never let me down. Jesus is truly the kind of friend that you can trust and pour your heart into. This post reminds us that while it’s important to be around people who are unbelievers as that gives us the opportunity to be witnesses for Christ it its also important for our growth with Christ that we surround ourselves with godly leaders and friends who will help us in our walk with Christ.
I’m very thankful to have my wonderful parents who have taught me from a young age to pursue healthy relationships that help me reach a better version of myself, in doing this I have become closer to God with the help of those around me.
This is a great reminder to not run from your problems because it is easy to do. God is always with me which is why I am starting to face my obstacles head on.
I feel like relationships can be extremely hard to find good ones, no matter what kind of relationship it is. Yet it is one of the most crucial things in our lives, good healthy relationships are able to thrive because of what they’re built on good relationships will be built on the lord, and in a healthy relationship instead of pulling us away from God, it allows us to be encouraged by one another to grow with him deepening our connection with the lord and with the other person.