“And I pray that you, being rooted and established in love, may have power, together with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ, and to know this love that surpasses knowledge – that you may be filled to the measure of all the fullness.” (Eph. 3:17b-19) Before I go on with the questions I would like to say that this part really spoke to me. There was a point when knowing with my head was most of what was going on in my spiritual life. But knowing love in my heart is what makes the difference. I know there are a lot of people that were like me. They have heard the message, they understand in their heads that there was a guy who died and it was so some sins could be forgiven or something, and that is good. But what is lost is the peace in their hearts that this is something that you can benefit from. I knew that the eternal was important, but the right here and now benefit is the reason I am trying to move toward Christ. It used to be an insurance policy type of thing. I knew in my head what the Bible said I understood what you were supposed to do and why, but that didn’t sound very fun, so I did my own thing. But after a while I started trying to change how I dealt with people, and I realized that the solution to changing my relationships was already in the Bible. I tried everything else, but only when I forgot myself and focused on the other people around me did things actually change. So, what I’m saying is that knowing who God/Jesus/Holy Spirit really is isn’t in your head, it is in your heart. This is the difference between Bible stories and wishing to grow in knowledge so that you can be moving in the will of God…this is also the difference between singing songs and truly praising God because he is worthy and that is what he desires, and when you truly know God in your heart you can be open to what the Holy Spirit wants to do in your life. I spent far too much time being overly cynical and thinking that God wasn’t trying to reach me, but my feelings and thoughts were the product of an over-active imagination and/or being caught in a moment. There is a certain amount of healthy cynicism, i.e. not constantly being caught in a moment, but being open to what God is doing and not writing off constantly….that is a change for me that has happened over the past two years. This is the difference now as shown in Mathew 13:14-15, “You will be hearing but never understanding; you will be ever seeing but never perceiving. For this people’s heart has become calloused; they hardly hear with their ears, and they have closed their eyes. Otherwise they might see with their eyes, hear with their ears, understand with their hearts and turn, and I would heal them.” Now, off with the ranting about thoughts on that verse, and on to the question.
Q: In what ways has God dissolved relational barriers in your own life? How are your relationships today – at home, at work, at school, in your neighborhood, with others in the church? Bring to God any strained relationships in your life and invite him to work through you to bring peace and reconciliation.
A: Over the past several years I have learned a lot about relationships with people around me. God specifically has taught me over the last year or so that the answers that I have arrived at on my own in the past were in the Bible all along. Specifically I have been shown that the first place I should go is the Bible, don’t asses people, don’t make assumptions about anyones motivations or intentions, but instead go first to the Bible, and see what God tells me to do whenever a relationship is stressed. Today I do pretty well with my relationships at work, at school and at home. I would like to have done better before some of my roommates moved out, that was a stressful time, and I ended up being so stressful that I needed to remove myself from the situation which resulted in me just not talking to a roommate for more then three words at a time for a period of a couple months.
Class, need to bail….later
Ben