Today's devotional is written by my God daughter Tracy Koweh. Blessed, Strong Woman Of God!
A One-Way Street can't hold Two-Way Traffic
Mark 12:33 (New Living Translation)
33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
Sititng here to write this blog, I'm reminded of the day I turned onto a one-way street driving in the wrong direction. I remember the fear and panic that I felt when I realized how dangerous of a situation I had gotten myself into, becuase I wasn't paying attention. The street was so narrow, that had another car attempted to come down the road, we would have collided because there was not enough room for both of us. The road was not designed to hold more than one car. The engineerer of the road had purposed it to carry traffic in only one direction. In order for two cars to travel on that road, modifications would need to be made or else things would have to remain the way there were. It wasn't after I was out of harms way that I realized................................a one-way street couldn't hold two-way traffic, and that trying to force it could end in a fatality.
In our lives we encounter many different types of relationships. Some good, some bad, some healthy and some that are very dangerous. Some times we connect with people who just drain us and never pour back into us. Some times we stay in relationships/friendships/ jobs because we hope and pray it will get better. Some times we are stuck where we are becuase we are under contract for a certian period of time. But sometimes we are connected to people to grow us, to mature us, to strenghten us and to give us the opportunity to show the love of God.
God loves us all whether we love him back or not. He does not love us with conditions or except us only when we are doing what He wants us to do. Some of us are in relationships that only go one-way. One person is always giving, going above and beyond, thinking outside the box and giving of themselves selflessly and the other person simply reaps all the benefits. This can cause a person to hardened their heart and become angry. It can cause a person to lash out and act out. It could even cause a person to shut down, close up and become very bitter. We often are so quick to point out when we are not being given what we feel we just deserve, but have we taken the time to measure our relationship with Christ.
Do we only go to church on good days, when its sunny, and the everything is alright in our world? Do we only pray when we get bad news or we find ourselves in trouble? Do we have a two-way conversation when we speak to the Father, or do we just run down our list of wants, desires, and needs? Do we take a moment after we pray, to listen to his answer, and truly hear his heart? Do we give everyday or just on Sunday? When was the last time you sent a love letter to God, spent a night alone just the two of you, or simply showed Him how you felt without waiting on Him to give you something first.
I can only imagine how much God hurts when we love Him on our terms. When we only talk to Him when we need or want something from Him. How it must anger Him that we spend hours and hours online, texting on our phone, and talking to people about things that have no real meaning, but we can barely get out a 5 min prayer. How it must make his blood boil that we can spend thousands of dollars going into debt this Christmas season and not remember to give a gift to the true birthday boy. As the year comes to an end, let us all purpose in our heart to expand our streets to accomodate a two-way commute. If we can't have a whole, healthy and fullfilling relationship with the Father, we will never be able to have it with another human being.
33 And I know it is important to love him with all my heart and all my understanding and all my strength, and to love my neighbor as myself. This is more important than to offer all of the burnt offerings and sacrifices required in the law.”
Sititng here to write this blog, I'm reminded of the day I turned onto a one-way street driving in the wrong direction. I remember the fear and panic that I felt when I realized how dangerous of a situation I had gotten myself into, becuase I wasn't paying attention. The street was so narrow, that had another car attempted to come down the road, we would have collided because there was not enough room for both of us. The road was not designed to hold more than one car. The engineerer of the road had purposed it to carry traffic in only one direction. In order for two cars to travel on that road, modifications would need to be made or else things would have to remain the way there were. It wasn't after I was out of harms way that I realized................................a one-way street couldn't hold two-way traffic, and that trying to force it could end in a fatality.
In our lives we encounter many different types of relationships. Some good, some bad, some healthy and some that are very dangerous. Some times we connect with people who just drain us and never pour back into us. Some times we stay in relationships/friendships/ jobs because we hope and pray it will get better. Some times we are stuck where we are becuase we are under contract for a certian period of time. But sometimes we are connected to people to grow us, to mature us, to strenghten us and to give us the opportunity to show the love of God.
God loves us all whether we love him back or not. He does not love us with conditions or except us only when we are doing what He wants us to do. Some of us are in relationships that only go one-way. One person is always giving, going above and beyond, thinking outside the box and giving of themselves selflessly and the other person simply reaps all the benefits. This can cause a person to hardened their heart and become angry. It can cause a person to lash out and act out. It could even cause a person to shut down, close up and become very bitter. We often are so quick to point out when we are not being given what we feel we just deserve, but have we taken the time to measure our relationship with Christ.
Do we only go to church on good days, when its sunny, and the everything is alright in our world? Do we only pray when we get bad news or we find ourselves in trouble? Do we have a two-way conversation when we speak to the Father, or do we just run down our list of wants, desires, and needs? Do we take a moment after we pray, to listen to his answer, and truly hear his heart? Do we give everyday or just on Sunday? When was the last time you sent a love letter to God, spent a night alone just the two of you, or simply showed Him how you felt without waiting on Him to give you something first.
I can only imagine how much God hurts when we love Him on our terms. When we only talk to Him when we need or want something from Him. How it must anger Him that we spend hours and hours online, texting on our phone, and talking to people about things that have no real meaning, but we can barely get out a 5 min prayer. How it must make his blood boil that we can spend thousands of dollars going into debt this Christmas season and not remember to give a gift to the true birthday boy. As the year comes to an end, let us all purpose in our heart to expand our streets to accomodate a two-way commute. If we can't have a whole, healthy and fullfilling relationship with the Father, we will never be able to have it with another human being.
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