Greetings to you in the name of our Lord and Saviour Jesus Christ. May the peace and joy of Jesus Christ rest with you and reign over you.

God has blessed us to see this week. Though we walked through lot of difficult situations, He did not allow us to perish, so it is right and worthy to worship him. He revealed His name to us as the Lord God who brought us out of Egypt. Therefore, thanking God is a wonderful and Godly habit that we need to work on. There are many people in the world who have decided to see the lacking in their lives and question God for their troubles. Nevertheless, God has called a few chosen people to be His very own who make an extraordinary choice to Praise him. That is the reason why the chosen when they walked through the fire and all kinds of troubled waters, were praising the Creator. They were able to keep the troubled situation away from their lives. Praising God is a Godly habit that is revealed in our lives to make our lives a blessing. Praising God is for our own benefit. When we praise God, our thinking process will be healed, and the mind will work in a normal way. Many times, we know that doing certain things are wrong, yet we do them. This is because our hearts have become futile. Few struggled to develop the love for the truth. Praising God will be a healing balm to the soul and will lead us to love the truth.

So far, we covered four important aspects under the topic, Relationship: 1) Always saying “yes” to please someone in a relationship is evil. 2) Fearing someone in a relationship is not a relationship. 3) Importance of Conversation in a relationship. 4) Testing the relationship. This week, we are going to see another important aspect in any relationship, i.e., ‘New creation.’ Many times, we struggle to understand the difference between feeling good and a relationship. Feeling good is lust which will not last for a long time. Addiction to feeling good will destroy us. A good example is, Lot, in the book of Genesis. He lifted his eyes and chose a place to dwell which he felt was the garden of God. I would like to highlight that Lot did not want to go away from God. He did not set his heart to enjoy the pleasure of sin. He was a righteous man, yet he yielded to feelings. Though he was not evil, he made a decision based on his feelings. We have to understand one important truth in life, which is, the worldly system makes us believe that having everything according to our desires will make our lives happy. Certainly not. On the other hand, it will destroy us. In the book of Ephesians 2:3, among whom also we all once conducted ourselves in the lusts of our flesh, fulfilling the desires of the flesh and of the mind, and were by nature children of wrath, just as the others. Here, Paul is very clear about feeling good and acting on its basis. God is the creator; He alone can create every good, happy, joyful, and peaceful life. We cannot assess the truth by what feels good to us. The moment we do so, we become the children of wrath, and we reject or close the door to all the good things. God is the creator. Unless we walk in His way in this created world, we will not have any reason to be happy, joyful, and in peace. 

New Creation:

A relationship should make your life better. It should help you with your weakness and should direct you to come out of your miry clay. Instead of addressing the weakness, just covering up your mistakes will give a good feeling temporarily, but eventually it will destroy your life. Making certain mistakes is maybe your weakness, but it should not become your excuse on a regular basis. If you allow it, a day will come when you will realise that it has become a sinful nature. So, you should not be attracted to these good feelings. The words of wisdom are revealed in the book of Proverbs 28:13 He who covers his sins will not prosper, But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy. Therefore, we have to be careful in a relationship to look for a person who exposes our sins. There will be certain times when we cannot evaluate our mistakes, so we need a trustworthy person to help us and to bring us out of this miry clay.  We have a saying in the world, “A friend in need is a friend indeed.” Here, the important question is, what is your need? Jesus Christ says, “I know what you need.” Sometimes, he will heal us through His love, and at other times through the rod of correction. Correction will not give a great feeling in the beginning but in the end, there will be a great reward. Only a few find favour in the eyes of the Lord to see the reward of correction. Therefore, if you are really interested in a relationship, look for a person whom you can trust to correct, comfort, and help you in your transformation.  

In, Genesis 24: 67 Then Isaac brought her into his mother Sarah’s tent; and he took Rebekah and she became his wife, and he loved her. So Isaac was comforted after his mother’s death. We see that there is healing in this relationship. Death of his mother was a hurt to Isaac, so in the sight of God he needed a helper in the form of Rebekah to heal him and to bring the transformation in his life. Hence, a relationship means changing the other person to his/ her betterment. We should not try to change the other person for our benefits, like Delilah, who became the reason for Samson’s death. A relationship which is not committed to change the other person is not a relationship at all. That is what Jesus Christ says in, 2 Corinthians 5:17 therefore, if anyone is in Christ, he isa new creation; old things have passed away; behold, all things have become new. Here, we see the signs of a relationship. If you are in the relationship with Christ, for sure that relationship will no longer allow you to remain in your old life. So, it is very important that the purpose of a relationship should be to make your life better. That is the reason why God brought a suitable helper to Adam. He did not bring a good person but a suitable person. Therefore, a person who is suitable to make a change in your life for the better, is the only one with whom you should be in a relationship. Being friends or holding a relationship for the sake of benefits or convenience or any other reason is considered as lust. 

How will you become a new creation?

When we commit our lives to a relationship, many unwanted pains, struggles, and certain bad experiences will become a part of life because of that relationship. In Deuteronomy 8:1-4 “Every commandment which I command you today you must be careful to observe, that you may live and multiply, and go in and possess the land of which the Lord swore to your fathers. 2 And you shall remember that the Lord your God led you all the way these forty years in the wilderness, to humble you and test you, to know what was in your heart, whether you would keep His commandments or not. 3 So He humbled you, allowed you to hunger, and fed you with manna which you did not know nor did your fathers know, that He might make you know that man shall not live by bread alone; but man lives by every word that proceeds from the mouth of the Lord. 4 Your garments did not wear out on you, nor did your foot swell these forty years. 5 You should know in your heart that as a man chastens his son, so the Lord your God chastens you. This passage is about the journey that God took with His people. He protected them, healed them, fed them, and gave them what they desired.  In the same way, He also gave them wilderness, humbled them, tested them, and allowed them to hunger. So, a relationship will not be a pleasant feeling always. It will go through many ups and downs. However, see the role of God in these ups and downs. God was helping them to know the unknown. He was not allowing their garments to wear down and did not allow their feet to become swollen. He was with them and fighting with them always. Therefore, if you make a decision to be in a relationship, the relationship will take the responsibility to transform you. You would not need to worry about anything, and the individual involved should make sure to protect you from wearing out and having swollen feet. They should be mindful of your protection; this will help them to remain in the relationship. The measure you use will be measured back to you. If you sacrifice your desires for the sake of others then God will see that and make the other person to protect your desire.

Remaining in the relationship:

Every individual in the relationship has to put his/her efforts to remain in the relationship. In Philippians 3:7 – 11 But what things were gain to me, these I have counted loss for Christ. 8 Yet indeed I also count all things loss for the excellence of the knowledge of Christ Jesus my Lord, for whom I have suffered the loss of all things, and count them as rubbish, that I may gain Christ 9 and be found in Him, not having my own righteousness, which is from the law, but that which is through faith in Christ, the righteousness which is from God by faith; 10 that I may know Him and the power of His resurrection, and the fellowship of His sufferings, being conformed to His death, 11 if, by any means, I may attain to the resurrection from the dead. Here we see the commitment of Paul to remain in the relationship with Christ. Likewise, Jesus Christ gave up His status to be with us. He gave up His comfort and humbled Himself to the point of death on the cross. To remain in a relationship, every individual has to give up their precious Isaac. When a person is unwilling to give up the precious thing, but has a desire for a relationship, it will not work out. In Matthew 19th Chapter, we came to know a person addressed as, a rich young ruler. He had a desire for eternal life. He was committed to his desire by fulfilling the commandments of God, but he still missed eternal life because he was not willing to give up what was precious in his life. To remain in a relationship, you need to sacrifice. Every relationship demands sacrifice. 

To conclude:

Every relationship needs a separation which will lead to a new fellowship. Every fellowship will deliver you from your past and make you new. In I John 1:6,7 Jesus Christ says, if we say that we have fellowship with Him, and walk in darkness, we lie and do not practice the truth. 7 But if we walk in the light as He is in the light, we have fellowship with one another, and the blood of Jesus Christ His Son cleanses us from all sin. Therefore, submit your precious possessions and hold the good relationship. The prodigal son traded the relationship with the father for precious things. A day came in his life when he realized the importance of the relationship he had forsaken. May the Lord Jesus Christ help you to form a good relationship so that you can be delivered from your loneliness.

God bless you all.