Category: ZZ

‘Trust in the Lord with all your heart; do not depend on your own understanding. Seek his will in all you do, and he will show you which path to take.’ Proverbs 3:5-6(NLT)

‘And the Father who knows all hearts knows what the Spirit is saying, for the Spirit pleads for us believers in harmony with God’s own will. And we know that God causes everything to work together for the good of those who love God and are called according to his purpose for them. ‘ Romans 8:27-28(NLT)

‘Dear friends, you always followed my instructions when I was with you. And now that I am away, it is even more important. Work hard to show the results of your salvation, obeying God with deep reverence and fear. For God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him.’ Philippians 2:12-13(NLT)

Maybe, in the course of working through these devotionals, you have made a life-altering decision. You have decided to try to start a new relationship, or you have decided to end a bad relationship. Or take a break from dating to focus on your relationship with God. Or repent of sin. Or set some new standards for your behavior before marriage. Or recommit to your marriage. Or resurrect an old dream that you thought had died inside you. Or put your priority back on God.

Whatever it is, I’m proud of you. This is what these devotionals have all been about—you taking aim in alignment with God’s goals for you. And let me assure you—you can hit your bull’s-eye.

Even if you can’t remember how many people you’ve slept with and yet still feel horribly alone. Even if bad memories and foolish past associations seem like they’ll never let go. Even if you’ve been divorced three times. Even if you realize that getting rid of all your friends whose bad company is corrupting your good character would leave you friendless for the time being. Even if you’ve tried and failed to be faithful to God many times, and the thought of trying again just makes you weary. Even then, next time around can be different. 

That’s because you’re not doing this alone. You’re not putting your trust in yourself. You’re not putting your trust in a friend’s or family member’s example, like it’s some default you have to mindlessly copy. You’re not putting your trust in a social media profile, dating app, or “how to win friends and influence people” course. You’re putting your trust in God.

Remember, “God is working in you, giving you the desire and the power to do what pleases him” (Philippians 2:13). I think He’s already given you the desire. Now He’s going to give you the power too. He’s going to help you find relationships that will honor Him at the same time they give you more satisfaction and greater fulfillment.

Pray a prayer of commitment to trust in God’s power and follow His leading to pursue the right kinds of relationships.

from Relationship Goals by Pastor Michael Todd

‘Just say a simple, ‘Yes, I will,’ or ‘No, I won’t.’ Anything beyond this is from the evil one.
Teaching about Revenge
“You have heard the law that says the punishment must match the injury: ‘An eye for an eye, and a tooth for a tooth.’ But I say, do not resist an evil person! If someone slaps you on the right cheek, offer the other cheek also. If you are sued in court and your shirt is taken from you, give your coat, too. If a soldier demands that you carry his gear for a mile, carry it two miles. Give to those who ask, and don’t turn away from those who want to borrow.
Teaching about Love for Enemies
“You have heard the law that says, ‘Love your neighbor’ and hate your enemy. ‘ Matthew 5:37-43(NLT)

‘Therefore, since we are surrounded by such a huge crowd of witnesses to the life of faith, let us strip off every weight that slows us down, especially the sin that so easily trips us up. And let us run with endurance the race God has set before us. We do this by keeping our eyes on Jesus, the champion who initiates and perfects our faith. Because of the joy awaiting him, he endured the cross, disregarding its shame. Now he is seated in the place of honor beside God’s throne. Think of all the hostility he endured from sinful people; then you won’t become weary and give up. ‘ Hebrews 12:1-3(NLT)

Look at Hebrews 12:1: “Let us strip off every weight that is slowing us down.” The verse specifically mentions one kind of weight—“the sin that so easily trips us up.” But there are other kinds of weights and burdens, including relational liabilities.

Every relationship that is not moving you toward purpose is weighing you down. Like, maybe you’re dating somebody who’s insecure and you’re always wasting time trying to explain yourself because your boo thinks you have an ulterior motive. When you try to say something constructive to help them, they think you’re coming at them because you’re jealous of them. But that’s not it at all. Is all this helping either one of you, really?

Who is around you that’s slowing you down? 

In Hebrews, this whole idea is set in the scene of footrace in a big stadium, with a finish line at the end of the track. “Let us run with endurance the race God has set before us.” 

Picture for a minute you on a track. God is saying, “I don’t want anybody coming into your lane to trip you up, because I have a race for you to run and I want you to run it with endurance. If you run this race I’ve called you to run, you’re going to win a prize and you’re going to be satisfied, because what I want to do in your life is better than anything you ever wanted to do in your life. So I need you to trust Me. But there’s something you got to do—you got to get all these weights off you!”

Move out if your roommate is a bad influence. Drop the class if the professor is making you doubt your worth. Move on if your friend continues to stir up drama and gossip. Stay away if your teammate encourages you to lower your standards. And please don’t put up with that boyfriend or girlfriend who hits you. End the relationship now.

What ungodly or unhelpful relationships do you need to put an end to, so that you have room for healthier relationships to take their place?

from Relationship Goals by Pastor Michael Todd

‘O Lord , you have examined my heart and know everything about me. You know when I sit down or stand up. You know my thoughts even when I’m far away. You see me when I travel and when I rest at home. You know everything I do. You know what I am going to say even before I say it, Lord . You go before me and follow me. You place your hand of blessing on my head. Such knowledge is too wonderful for me, too great for me to understand! I can never escape from your Spirit! I can never get away from your presence! If I go up to heaven, you are there; if I go down to the grave, you are there. If I ride the wings of the morning, if I dwell by the farthest oceans, even there your hand will guide me, and your strength will support me. I could ask the darkness to hide me and the light around me to become night— but even in darkness I cannot hide from you. To you the night shines as bright as day. Darkness and light are the same to you. You made all the delicate, inner parts of my body and knit me together in my mother’s womb. Thank you for making me so wonderfully complex! Your workmanship is marvelous—how well I know it. You watched me as I was being formed in utter seclusion, as I was woven together in the dark of the womb. You saw me before I was born. Every day of my life was recorded in your book. Every moment was laid out before a single day had passed. How precious are your thoughts about me, O God. They cannot be numbered! I can’t even count them; they outnumber the grains of sand! And when I wake up, you are still with me! O God, if only you would destroy the wicked! Get out of my life, you murderers! They blaspheme you; your enemies misuse your name. O Lord , shouldn’t I hate those who hate you? Shouldn’t I despise those who oppose you? Yes, I hate them with total hatred, for your enemies are my enemies. Search me, O God, and know my heart; test me and know my anxious thoughts. Point out anything in me that offends you, and lead me along the path of everlasting life.’ Psalms 139:1-24(NLT)

‘But when the Pharisees heard that he had silenced the Sadducees with his reply, they met together to question him again. One of them, an expert in religious law, tried to trap him with this question: “Teacher, which is the most important commandment in the law of Moses?” Jesus replied, “‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself.’ The entire law and all the demands of the prophets are based on these two commandments.”’ Matthew 22:34-40(NLT)

In some of His most famous words, Jesus said, “ ‘You must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, and all your mind.’ This is the first and greatest commandment. A second is equally important: ‘Love your neighbor as yourself’ ” (Matthew 22:37–39). 

This shows us the connection between having a relationship with God and having relationships with people, as we saw back in Devotional 1. But let’s look closer at the second greatest commandment. Notice that it says, “Love your neighbor as yourself.” Jesus drew a definite connection between our love for others and our love for ourselves. 

Most of us spend so much time hating things about ourselves that we don’t realize we’re crippling our ability to love others. There’s no way you can figure out how to love somebody else well in a relationship if you have not first figured out how to love yourself. 

Some of us treat ourselves so ugly. We settle for way less than what we know we deserve. We violate our bodies and our hearts and allow others to do the same. We use our own words to put ourselves down constantly. 

Well, consider this. If you devalue yourself, then you will inevitably end up treating your neighbor, or even your spouse, the same way. 

In order to learn to love yourself the way God intended, you have to build a relationship with God, who is love. Remember, your relationship with Him is your ultimate relationship. But then loving yourself means accepting who God created you to be, as hard as that may be for you. It means taking the time to find your fulfillment in Him and realizing that only He can fill the emptiness you feel inside. 

The way God created you was not a mistake. Remember, He made the human race and He “saw that it was very good!” (Genesis 1:31). He calls you His masterpiece (Ephesians 2:10). He wants you to see yourself the way He sees you—loved and valuable.

What are the obstacles you face to having a healthy self-love?

from Relationship Goals by Pastor Michael Todd

‘Then the Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper who is just right for him.” So the Lord God formed from the ground all the wild animals and all the birds of the sky. He brought them to the man to see what he would call them, and the man chose a name for each one. He gave names to all the livestock, all the birds of the sky, and all the wild animals. But still there was no helper just right for him. So the Lord God caused the man to fall into a deep sleep. While the man slept, the Lord God took out one of the man’s ribs and closed up the opening. Then the Lord God made a woman from the rib, and he brought her to the man. “At last!” the man exclaimed. “This one is bone from my bone, and flesh from my flesh! She will be called ‘woman,’ because she was taken from ‘man.’” This explains why a man leaves his father and mother and is joined to his wife, and the two are united into one. Now the man and his wife were both naked, but they felt no shame.’ Genesis 2:18-25(NLT)

‘Two people are better off than one, for they can help each other succeed. If one person falls, the other can reach out and help. But someone who falls alone is in real trouble. Likewise, two people lying close together can keep each other warm. But how can one be warm alone? A person standing alone can be attacked and defeated, but two can stand back-to-back and conquer. Three are even better, for a triple-braided cord is not easily broken.’ Ecclesiastes 4:9-12(NLT)

Creation is so basic to understanding relationship goals that we need to go back there for a second devotional. With me?

God made the sun and the moon and the sky and said, “It is good.” He made water and dry land and said, “It is good.” He made plants like spinach and kale, and then, for me, all the ingredients for a delicious soul-food dinner, and said, “It is good.” Then He made the sea creatures like Willy and Nemo and Flounder, and all the wild animals like Timon, Pumbaa, and Simba, and said, “It’s good.” When He made Adam, He said, “It’s very good.” It was all good.

But pretty soon God said for the first time, “It’s not good.” It’s not that God had messed up—He never messes up. Something was missing. “The Lord God said, ‘It is not good for the man to be alone’ ” (Genesis 2:18).

This principle is true for all Adam’s children as well. It’s not good for you to be alone. It’s not good for me to be alone. 

When we set up a life that is guarded and gated, the enemy comes to attack us. When we’re isolated, we’re at more risk of listening to lies about who we are and coming to believe them as truth. 

We all need relationship with people who can remind us of the truth and dispel the falsehood, who can show us some of the love our hearts need, who can help us along our way. God knows this. And that’s why God wants relationship for us. 

Is it hard for you to believe that a major part of God’s plan for your life involves relationship? 

He wants you to have a best friend, even though the last one stabbed you in the back. He wants you to have pastors and mentors who create a safe place to grow and become. He wants you to be in a marriage that works and is marked by love, honor, respect, and fun. Granted, your past relationships might have been, well…the opposite of that. But God is a Redeemer, so He can take whatever is broken and jacked up and work it for your good. 

Spend some time thanking God for your existing relationships and asking Him to guide you into new ones that will help you fulfill His purposes in your life.

from Relationship Goals by Pastor Michael Todd

‘Then God said, “Let us make human beings in our image, to be like us. They will reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, the livestock, all the wild animals on the earth, and the small animals that scurry along the ground.” So God created human beings in his own image. In the image of God he created them; male and female he created them. Then God blessed them and said, “Be fruitful and multiply. Fill the earth and govern it. Reign over the fish in the sea, the birds in the sky, and all the animals that scurry along the ground.”’ Genesis 1:26-28(NLT)

‘This is the account of the creation of the heavens and the earth.
The Man and Woman in Eden
When the Lord God made the earth and the heavens, neither wild plants nor grains were growing on the earth. For the Lord God had not yet sent rain to water the earth, and there were no people to cultivate the soil. Instead, springs came up from the ground and watered all the land. Then the Lord God formed the man from the dust of the ground. He breathed the breath of life into the man’s nostrils, and the man became a living person. Then the Lord God planted a garden in Eden in the east, and there he placed the man he had made. The Lord God made all sorts of trees grow up from the ground—trees that were beautiful and that produced delicious fruit. In the middle of the garden he placed the tree of life and the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. A river flowed from the land of Eden, watering the garden and then dividing into four branches. The first branch, called the Pishon, flowed around the entire land of Havilah, where gold is found. The gold of that land is exceptionally pure; aromatic resin and onyx stone are also found there. The second branch, called the Gihon, flowed around the entire land of Cush. The third branch, called the Tigris, flowed east of the land of Asshur. The fourth branch is called the Euphrates. The Lord God placed the man in the Garden of Eden to tend and watch over it. But the Lord God warned him, “You may freely eat the fruit of every tree in the garden— except the tree of the knowledge of good and evil. If you eat its fruit, you are sure to die.”’ Genesis 2:4-17(NLT)

Before there was ever a person on this earth—and in fact before there was even an earth—there was already relationship. How’s that? It’s because God the Father, God the Son, and God the Holy Spirit existed as three persons in one. 

Now, I can’t totally explain the Trinity. Nobody can. It’s real, but how it works goes beyond our ability to comprehend. The thing is, the Bible makes it clear that the three persons of the Trinity have dwelled together forever. 

Meaning relationship was, is, and forever will be. Cool, huh?

Maybe the coolest thing about all this (for us anyway) is that humanity was created out of that everlasting relationship. The Trinity had a conversation and agreed, “Let us make human beings in our own image” (Genesis 1:26). The Trinity didn’t need us. They were already perfect, complete, and fulfilled within Themselves. But out of the overflow of Their love, They decided to create humans, both male and female.

The first human, Adam, lived in the Garden of Eden with God as his companion from his first day. In other words, he had a relationship with God before there was even one other human to know. 

The picture we get in Genesis 2—3 is that God and Adam were homies. They would hang together in the garden, talk about this and that, and take walks to look at the shiny new plants and animals while enjoying the cool evening breeze together. All by themselves, just the two of them.

Here’s what we need to get out of this: No matter what other relationships we have (or don’t have), all of us can have a relationship with God. Through Christ, He invites us into the same kind of connection He has within the Trinity—a loving, giving relationship. 

Even though the top relationship goal we have on our minds right now probably is finding or improving a human relationship, it’s important to see how our relationship with God should come first and above all other relationships. It’s the relationship, our ultimate relationship, and all blessings flow out of that relationship. 

What is your relationship with God like? How does it affect your human relationships?

from Relationship Goals Pastor by Michael Todd