Devotions this week based on the Message: “Hope Comes with Secure Relationships”.
Everyone wants relationships they can count on.
When I can’t trust or depend on someone, my hope diminishes that anything good will come from that relationship. However, relationships that are secure and dependable give me hope that there IS someone I can rely on, depend on, and move into the future with.
This week we will look at four components that make a secure relationship…find them in our relationship with the Lord and with each other.
Today: CONSISTENCY
Consistency is being the person that shows up day after day, week after week in the same way. We probably all know a person or two that you never know how that person is going to show up. Are they going to be chill? Will they fly off the handle? Will they change their expectations?
Insecurity in a relationship comes when the other person is inconsistent. When we are inconsistent, it’s hard to predict what we will do or how we will react.
It can be hard to be consistent. Situations change. Our mood changes. Our perspectives change.
To be consistent, we need a “true north” so to speak to which we can always orient ourselves. James says this: Anyone who listens to the word but does not do what it says is like a man who looks at his face in a mirror and, after looking at himself, goes away and immediately forgets what he looks like.
For Christians, our orientation for consistency is the Word of God…hearing it AND doing what it says. Difficult? Yes, it still is. However, it gives us a place to continue to go back to and people will know when they interact with us, the constant will be our humbleness before the Word of God.
Why is this a place of consistency?
Because the Word is written by the God who is always constant. The Apostle John put it this way: 1 John 1:1 That which was from the beginning, …” or in his Gospel, John 1:1-2 In the beginning was the Word, and the Word was with God, and the Word was God. He was with God in the beginning.
Genesis 1:1 says, “In the beginning, God created the heavens and the earth.” John points us to a God who is completely consistent. He has been from before time began and has existed and been the same throughout the pages of Scripture. Mankind has created different gods, which leads one to feel frustrated to know a God consistently. The God who revealed himself in the pages of Scripture, IS the one true God.
This relationship is one God wants to make sure is secure. First between us and him. That is found in the person and work of Jesus Christ. When I realize the security in the consistency of my relationship with God, I am better grounded to provide a secure, consistent relationship with others.
How does this happen? My relationship with God grounds me to the Word of God. When I’m grounded in the Word of God, I always have an orientation to life that works and makes sense. With the Word of God as my guide, I can be a secure, consistent relationship to others.
Apply: Spend a moment to evaluate the relationships you enjoy. What truth of God’s Word might help you be a more consistent secure person to those around you?
Prayer: Lord thank you for always being the same. I know I can always count on you for you are always consistent in who you say you are and what you say you will do. AMEN.