Day Four Forty Days of Focus: Relationships

Relationship help to the rescue. Because God is in eternal relationship with Himself, He has experienced relationships from eternity past. He is all knowing, all powerful and everywhere present. There is not one thing He doesn't know about relationships and there is not one thing He cannot change or control. But one of God's greatest eternal attributes is His love. Because of love, His relationships tend to put a huge value on loving others unconditionally. The old testament word for this kind of God-love is "Hesed." It's loyal love. Without God, relationships do suffer. There are only two possible paths and both are frustrating and leave us wanting. However, in God we discover that what is keeping us from loving perfectly and being loved perfectly is a sin nature which has sway over us and keeps us from our potential. In 1 John 4:7-8 we read, "Dear friends, let us love one another, for love comes from God. Everyone who loves has been born of God and knows God. 8 Whoever does not love does not know God, because God is love." From these verses we learn that (1) "Love comes from God" and that (2) "God is love." With these two truths in mind, let us consider the impact God's eternal nature on our relationships. Tomorrow's reading will explore the implications and provide us with the third way, which is the best way, to relate to others.