I received bad news yesterday that got me thinking deeply. Please indulge me and reflect on this subject. I hope this write up influences some of your decisions as the year winds down and we look forward to a new year.
How many of us can say assuredly that we have a support person or persons we can turn to when everything around us appears to be sinking or fading away?
When life hits hard and there is turbulence around you, do you have someone you can find solace in? Someone that can succour you and give you the needed emotional support?
I know as believers we should have a vertical relationship with God, this is the ultimate relationship but as humans we need horizontal relationships with fellow humans as well, which feeds our soul. Adam lacked this relationship at the beginning and God described it by saying:
“....it is not good for man to be alone.....” Neither Man or Woman wasn’t made to be ALONE!
When the topsy-turvy wave of life engulfs you, do you find yourself alone in the midst of the storm? The preacher captured this in a prose in Ecclesiastes 4:9-12 Two are better than one, because they have a good return for their labor: If either of them falls down, one can help the other up. But pity anyone who falls and has no one to help them up. Also, if two lie down together, they will keep warm. But how can one keep warm alone? Though one may be overpowered, two can defend themselves. A cord of three strands is not quickly broken
But we have limited this portion of the bible to marriages and couples, which is true but it also has a broader bearing outside marriage. I will show you why I say so; take a look at the first verse of that chapter: Ecclesiastes 4:1 Again I looked and saw all the oppression that was taking place under the sun: I saw the tears of the oppressed—and they have no comforter; power was on the side of their oppressors—and they have no comforter
He was clearly talking about the oppressed. We are quick to associate oppression to a human being and ignore the oppression suffered by our soul. Depression is an oppression of the soul, in some instances, ill mental health also is. When you carry out a study of the book of Psalms, you will agree me that David and the other Psalmists wrote a lot about this:
Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? - Psalms 42:5
David clearly had his personal bouts within his soul. As humans we cannot ignore the soul, when we suffer from soul sickness, we are not whole; we are out of balance. And if our soul is not under the ascendancy of God, it will spiral out of control. To further buttress my point about the prose in Ecclesiastes, verse 8 sheds light that it shouldn’t only be attributed to marriage: There was a man all alone; he had neither son nor brother. - Ecclesiastes 4:8
You can clearly see that he wasn’t referring to a relationship between a man and his wife and vice versa. He was talking about healthy horizontal relationships of brotherhood and sisterhood.
You know the church should be a community of healthy relationships. That’s why members of the body of Christ are called brethren. We should stand with each other whenever one person is down, everyone should rally round and lift him/her up. This is what Christianity is all about.
As we wind up this year, I will love you to reflect on this: Do you have such relationships? Have you invested enough in your relationships? Do you need to re-evaluate your relationships? Do you need to work harder at your relationships?
Turn to God for help, ask Him to direct you to people that are genuine, trustworthy, loyal, committed and those that will value you as a friend in the coming year.
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See you at the next one!
Psalms 42:11 Why, my soul, are you downcast? Why so disturbed within me? Put your hope in God, for I will yet praise him, my Savior and my God
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