I Am REDEEMED!Egzanp

I Am REDEEMED: Relationships

Have you ever wished for a do-over?

Maybe there are days, choices, or whole seasons of your life you would like to go back and redo. Here's the best news ever: Jesus is the ultimate Redeemer.

He can take our worst days, bad decisions, and ugly regrets and turn them all around. He can use them for our good. We can learn lessons from them, he can mend hearts and relationships, and he can even help us dump all of our regrets.

For today, let's focus on relationships.

We have all experienced relationships that went sideways, marriages that have struggled, kids that went a different direction than the one we would choose for them, or problems with our parents.

There's a reason relationships are hard: it's because we are human.

What is your first response when you have a troubled relationship, when things aren't working out the way you hoped, planned, or dreamed? Do you lash out? Do you cut the offender out of your life? Maybe you are more of a stay-and-duke-it-out kind of person.

No matter how you handle issues in your relationship, the Lord offers us guidance.

In 1 Peter 3:8, he reminds us: Finally, all of you, have unity of mind, sympathy, brotherly love, a tender heart, and a humble mind. Such simple advice, but not always easy to implement in our relationships.

We often pray, Lord, fix them! Change them! But the Lord wants to do something within us.

How can we do our part in our relationships, especially when we are struggling, or they seem beyond repair? We can pray words that have the power to change things in Jesus' name.

When we begin praying God's word over our relationships, something has to change! Maybe it will be us who change from the inside out. Perhaps our perspective will change. Things may not go the way we expect them to, but when we pray to the One who holds the power of redemption in his hands, things cannot stay the same.

Prayer for relationships: Father, heal my relationship with ____________ (fill in the blank). Please bring us to a place where we have unity of mind, sympathy, tender hearts towards one another, and humble minds. Let us live a life worthy of your calling, and let us do all we can to maintain the unity of the Holy Spirit as we make the choice every day to be gentle and patient, overlooking one another's faults as you overlook ours. Bring us to peace, forgiveness, and joy in our relationship with you and one another. In Jesus' name, amen.