The Key to Joy: It's all about "Relationships", "Communication" and "Forgiveness"!....
As my good friend Ron says, "It's all about relationships".
With "social media"...it's about "friends", "connections" and "followers".
If you can't wait to get to the end of this post...It's all about Forgiveness!
Over the course of time, I have added, "Yes, and it's all about Communication."
Communication, Communication, Communication.
All about Relationships: Yes, with Jesus through God our Father...and then relationship with each other.
To develop any relationship, we need to listen and to communicate.
So it's all about Communication, Communication Communication.
With God, we communicate through Prayer.
With each other, we communicate in many ways.
But in any relationship...even with the best of Relationship and Communication, we mess up. It's called sin.
With God we can repent and ask for forgiveness.
So to complete the circle...I have added yes, and it's all about Forgiveness.
Forgiveness, Forgiveness, Forgiveness.
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom
Just as we can have a relationship with God, through Jesus Christ and with each other...We can communicate our love and needs to Him and also to other...but in the process we have a tendency to mess up. But again, we can ask God for forgiveness...and as He has made His forgiveness available to us, we then also need to forgive each other.
Alot of times...when there is a lack of joy in our lives and we have forgiven others and ourselves...we might forget to forgive our parents for real or imaginary hurts. Perception is real.
"Therefore, as God's chosen people, holy and clearly loved, clothe yourselves with compassion, kindness, humility, gentleness and patience. Bear with each other and forgive whatever grievances you may have against one another. Forgive as the LORD forgave you. And over all these virtues put on love, which binds them all together in perfect unity." Romans 3:12-14
As Eugene H. Peterson says in The Message: Matthew 6: "In prayer there is a connection between what God does and what you do. You can't get forgiveness from God, for instance, without also forgiving others. If you refuse to do your part, you cut yourself off from God's part."
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom
So how can we NOT forgive others?
As we truly experience God's forgiveness and grace, it's then pretty easy to forgive others! Or at least it should be!
So, do we have joy?
If not, might be a good time to examine our relationships with others...our spouse, family members and maybe more important to examine our relationships with our parents...if we still have living parents.
I also remember a verse from the Bible in Exodus 20:12 "Honor your father and your mother, so that you may live long in the land the LORD your God is giving you."
So don't forget to forgive parents, even if they are long gone! Time is short, eternity is long.
As Don Wilkerson says, "Never be defined by your past. It's a lesson not a life sentence.”
"To forgive is to set a prisoner free and discover the prisoner was you." -Corrie ten Boom
"Behold, how good and how pleasant it is for brethren to dwell together in unity." Psalm 133:1
As Dietrich Bonhoeffer In Life Together says, "this is the Scriptures' praise of life together under the Word. But now we can rightly interpret the words "in unity" and say, "for brethren to dwell together through Christ." For Jesus Christ alone is our unity. "He is our peace.
Through him alone do we have access to one another, joy in one another, and fellowship with one another."
A parent's greatest joy is found in this verse: "I have no greater joy than to hear that my children are walking in the truth." 3 John:4
