Five steps to achieving unity in our relationships
November 24 - 30, 2024 | Always Peachy Devotionals | Unity Week 4
Anybody else like practical solutions?
I’m a crazy creative person. Those of you who know me well have seen the squirrels in my brain. They tend to run amok if I don’t keep an eye on them, and they love coming up with wild ideas. But even though I love crazy ideas, I love practical action steps more.
I think it’s the Midwestern farm kid in me.
So we have all invested a lot of time this month talking about unity, what it is and isn’t and when it can be dangerous and why it matters to God and so on and so forth. And now that we’ve established all that, so what?
What good does it do any of us to acknowledge that unity matters and that we all need it but not to talk about how to achieve it or implement it? So that’s what we’re doing this week. We’re going to nail down what Scripture says is essential to achieving unity in our society as Jesus-followers.
It’s not easy. Nothing worth having is ever easy. But God has given us His Spirit to empower us to do impossible things, and that includes living in unity with each other, even if we don’t always agree (because remember we won’t always agree).
Monday - Celebrate each other (Romans 12:10)
Tuesday - Keep Jesus at the center (Colossians 1:18)
Wednesday - Know the Scriptures and do them (John 14:23)
Thursday - Seek to know God (Deuteronomy 4:29)
Friday - Love each other (Acts 4:32)
That’s it. Five steps to achieving unity in our relationships. Think it sounds too good to be true? Well, of course it won’t be smooth. Unity is something that God values, so it’s exactly the thing the enemy is going to try to prevent us from reaching.
That’s why we need these five areas, because if we keep ourselves on track in these five areas, the enemy won’t be able to get at us when he tries. Because he will try. Oh, he will try. But God who is inside each of us is far greater than our enemy ever will be, and He is mighty to help us when we call on Him.
So call on Him. Don’t wait. And don’t try to do any of this on your own. Real unity can only be accomplished when we lean on Jesus to help us love others the way He loves us.
And that’s actually related to our memory verse this week, John 13:35.
Sounds straightforward, doesn’t it? Like it should be easy?
Ha.
Loving your fellow Christians the way Jesus does will be the hardest thing you’ve ever tried to do. Sure, some of the time it will be easy. Some of the time it will make sense. But there will be other times when you run into another Christian, and they will make you so angry you can’t see straight.
The enemy comes at our relationships within the Church because this verse is true. He attacks our connections to each other because of the power of these words. If loving each other is the way to show the world that we are different, Satan will do all in his power to prevent us from loving each other.
And we can’t let him. We have to persist in love for each other no matter what. Without God’s help, it’s impossible, but with God all things are possible, even loving the unlovable.
Real unity isn’t impossible, nor is it out of our reach. But before we set our sights on unification, first make sure we’re unifying around what is true. After that, don’t forget the love, because without God’s love, any attempt at unity isn’t going to make it very long.
Thankful for each and every one of you. Happy Thanksgiving!
Amy
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