Thank God

“If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.” Gal.5:15 [NCV]

You need people around you. If you are a man you need a woman, if you are a woman you need a man, that is, in a marriage situation.  J.F. Newton says, “People are lonely because they build walls instead of bridges”. Most of the time, it is because we “learn” from our experiences and so we come up with all sorts of gimmicks to protect ourselves. And because we are hurt, we go on to hurt other people. “Hurting people hurt people”. And because we are in pain, we inflict pain.

However, God warns us so clearly in His Word about this. “If you go on hurting each other and tearing each other apart, be careful, or you will completely destroy each other.” Gal.5:15 [NCV]. If a department for instance , is filled with people that are always backbiting, always talking about the other person and hurting each other, the Bible says such a department will soon tear itself apart. If you have a family where they are always hurting each other as if  they are in a contest, that family will soon tear itself apart. It is in the Bible. But God wants us to build bridges and not walls.

We are going to be learning five practical things to do from God’s Word  when faced with frustration in relationships with a spouse, children, parents, or parents-in-law. Five practical things to do  when confronted with anger, or overwhelmed with hurt, or filled with resentment, or confronted with confusion, or struggling with selfishness. Anyone can make a relationship work in a ninety minute Hollywood movie. But real life is going to take more than ninety minutes. It is going to take more than two hours. Real life is going to take more than three hundred pages of a romance novel. Real life is going to draw blood. But today, God is going to empower you to triumph with clear directions for your relationship.

#1. THANK GOD FOR YOUR DIFFERENCES: The first practical thing to do when everything is failing or falling apart, when it comes to loving the imperfect person, or loving people that have betrayed you, or when things are not working perfectly and you feel frustrated the first thing in whatever relationship, is to thank God for your differences. Some of the greatest frustrations we face in relationships are because we are different.

Prayer: Father, I thank You for all my relationships. Thank You for making each and everyone of us so wonderfully complex, I thank God for… [say their names], in Jesus Name.