Relational Living

RELATIONAL LIVING

(January 2002)

 

“The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone.

I will make a helper suitable for him.’”

(Genesis 2:18, NIV)

 

It is good to remind ourselves that God created mankind

primarily for relationships from which come eighty percent

of life’s satisfaction. To live meaningfully is to be in

meaningful relationships, without which life can be very

empty and lonely.

 

If we don’t know how to relate in healthy ways, we don’t

know how to live fully, and we can impair both our mental

and physical health as a result. Or another way to put it:

to fully live we need to fully love!

 

It helps us to remember that God himself is in relationship

through the Trinity (God the Father, God the Son, and God

the Holy Spirit). Also, Jesus started the Christian movement

with relationships: “He [Jesus] appointed twelve...that they

might be with him.” (Mark 3:14) Furthermore, practically all

of Christ’s ministry was done in relationship with his

twelve disciples.

 

As a Christian, our first need is to keep in a right

relationship with God, which begins by accepting Jesus

Christ as our personal Savior and Lord. Trying to live the

Christian life without this is like trying to go east by

traveling west.

 

We then need close, healthy relationships with people. Only

then can we realize some of the deepest longings of the

human heart. This doesn’t mean that we are to be

overdependent on others, codependent with them, or

independent from them, but interdependent with them.

 

The reality is that we need people. Barbra Streisand

expressed it well in the song: “People who need people are

the luckiest people in the world.”

 

Furthermore, the degree of our mental health, emotional

maturity, and spiritual well-being will be reflected in the

health or otherwise of our close relationships. God’s

command to “love one another” is not a sentimental

suggestion. It’s an imperative.

 

Suggested prayer, “Dear God, please help me first of all to

have a right relationship with you and then to resolve any

character issues in my life that may hinder my having

healthy relationships with others. Help me to love you and

others more fully and myself in a healthy way. Gratefully,

in Jesus’ name. Amen.”