Title: The Rewards of Relationships
Text:
Ecclesiastes 4:9-10 (ESV)
9 Two are better than one, because they have a good reward for their toil.
10 For if they fall, one will lift up his fellow. But woe to him who is alone when he falls and has not another to lift him up!
Observation:
What is the most rewarding aspect of your ministry and work? This question quickens my heart to ponder it more deeply before giving an answer.
First, I thought about what it is not. Successes in school, work, and ministry are great; but they don't adequately address the question. Trophies and awards lose their luster with the passing of time, and eventually you will cease to occupy the position that brought them.
However, as I ponder the question I come to the realization that the things that gives the most satisfaction is relationships. There is nothing that surpasses loving God and loving others. The Master put it this way.
Matthew 22:37-40 (ESV)
37 And he said to him, "You shall love the Lord your God with all your heart and with all your soul and with all your mind.
38 This is the great and first commandment.
39 And a second is like it: You shall love your neighbor as yourself.
40 On these two commandments depend all the Law and the Prophets."
At this season of my life, I am looking for divine appointments to add value to others by being love to them. One of those opportunities will occur in three days; my daughter and son will be with me for ten days. We will be together on the one year anniversary of the home going of my wife, and their mother. O, what a joyous time that will be. Yes, it's about relationships; they matter the most to me.
Prayer:
Our Father in heaven, my dear Father, I praise and thank you that you are a God who places top priority on relationships. Father, you are a God who loved first; we sing the song, "O, how I love Jesus, because he first loved me". Father, help me to learn to love others first. In Jesus name, Amen.
--
Acts 6:4 (KJV)
4 But we will give ourselves continually to prayer, and to the ministry of the word.
My blog: Sharing the Word of God Daily:
http://herbcotton.blogspot.com/
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