"I'm not lonely as along as I have me." Have you ever thought that? Or how about, "I don't need anyone else, just me and God"? I have. Quite recently, well a few nights ago. I am wrong when I think such things.
How many times have we been self absorbed? Only thinking of ourselves? Not wanting to be involved in anyone? Just taking the easy route out? Using the excuse that, " I only need to focus on my relationship with God"? Rethink that and look in the Bible, God's telling us something quite different.
Before I dive into scripture let's think about this. When we limit ourselves to only knowing a few number of people we limit our relationship with God. We limit our growing relationship making it a standstill relationship which is dangerous place to be. In my experience this is when I'm usually convicted; God getting my attention, me realizing something is wrong, confessing it, and being committed to work through it with the result of a character change and growth in my relationship with God. Kind of tangent, but back on track. When we limit ourselves to a few that we are most comfortable with and that are the easiest to know we limit ourselves to God. We limit our love, thus relationship, thus growth. Why? Because we can't love God if we don't love people, Christians and non-Christians.
The second point, how do we further the Kingdom of God when we hang out with only Bobby Joe and Sally Rue? How do we spread the love of Christ and the gospels when we only hang out with a limited number of people that we are comfortable with, how do we grow?
Let's look at what God says about all this. We can't love God unless we love his people. We can't love Christ unless we love his people. Look at 1 John 4:20-21 and 1 John 5:1-3. 4:20"If someone says, 'I love God,' and hates his brother he is a lair; for he who does not love his brother whom he has seen, how can he love God whom he has not seen? 21) And this commandment we have from Him: that he who loves God must love his brother also."Notice the verb, not should, or could, but MUST. If Christ is in us how can we hate our brother? We would hate Christ who is in him, thus; hating Christ. Look at 1 John 5: 3, "For this is the love of God, that we keep His commandments. And His commandments are not burdensome." What are His commandments? 1) Love your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind and with all your strength. 2) Love your neighbor as yourself. There are no other commandments greater than these". Mark 12:30-31. So Jesus lays out for us, love God, love people. Further on we see that loving God is through loving His people. Read the whole book of 1 John, also look at James 4:11-12 where James is talking about not judging one another because you are actually judging the law, and what is the law in this case? I think it's Jesus. The word in flesh. See the picture? We can't experience a living, loving God if we don't have relationships. If we were meant to just know God through ourselves, Eve would not have been created. I don't think I explained this well enough due to lack of time but it's an important concept we all need to focus on.
The second part, furthering the kingdom of God I think is really just loving, caring for people and sharing the Gospels. We share the gospels just by caring for people. How? Because that is Christ's commandments and His life. We need to make sure that we don't surround ourselves in a bubble of comfort where we don't want to move out and meet, know, care for people. I know I've fallen into this trap and it's not healthy, my relationship with God was seriously degrading and lacking the essentially component; love. IV has been moving in both of these directions and being a part of it is has really made me grow a lot with relationships with people and with God.
Are you pursuing people? Caring for people? Are you pursuing Christ? Is your relationship growing or is it at a stand-still? Taking the easy way out, not working through the hard, or just making sure life is only about comfort? Is your main focus loving God and loving his people or is it seeking what's easiest and most comfortable? Are you being self-absorbed?
