My great grandmother would say that if you start a thing on the left foot, it will be very hard to get it right. In other words, if we begin something with the wrong attitude, heart-space, and intention, the result will not be what we expect. Likely, the result will be a larger dose of the very concoction of emotions and effort we began with. Jesus Christ reminds us of this law in Luke 6:38 where he tells us that the return on our investment will be a pressed down, shaken together, running over portion of the investment we initially made. It doesn’t make sense to think we can sow apple seeds and grow a tree of oranges. No. We reap what we sow. This law works with mathematical precision. If you start from a place of love with pure intent and motivation, you’re likely to end up with this kind of love coming back to you.
We are being perfected in Christ daily, and there are some things that we’re doing wrong today that we might not get right until much later in life. Heavenly Father knows that we will continue to grow spiritually and transform into the person He desires us to be. We’re not there yet, but we’re on our way. He knows that sometimes we’ll fall, but we’ll find a way to get back up. However, there are some wrongs we might commit that have the potential to keep us continually on the ground.
With wrongness, there are two outcomes. One is an outcome that’s not good, but it can be corrected. This is what I call a ‘get-back-up’ wrongness. Again, we fall, but eventually turn that thing around. All wrong choices cause us to lose time, momentum, and stamina on our journeys, but when we correct ourselves through God’s Word, we can get back up and get back on the good foot. We can regain the momentum and stamina we lost and continue our journey upward and forward in Christ.
The other outcome is what I call a ‘critical’ wrongness. It is a propensity to make a mistake that will so alter the trajectories of our lives that it throws us completely off the path of destiny. This is when we are carrying stuff in our hearts that will cause our relationships to be weapons against our own well-being. Jesus Christ warned believers in Revelation 3:2(NLT), “Wake up! Strengthen what little remains, for even what is left is almost dead. I find that your actions do not meet the requirements of my God.” If we have any degree of humility, we will wake up and recognize when our actions are NOT meeting God’s requirements. And hopefully we will do this before we head down a path of critical wrongness. In other words, hopefully we will wake up before we attach ourselves to someone that is very wrong for our spiritual journeys.
The wisdom of Proverbs 4:26(NLT) tells us, “Mark out a straight path for your feet; stay on the safe path.” You and I are responsible for marking out a straight path for our feet. To ‘mark out’ is to choose the route that we will follow. God has given us free-will agency. So, He’s not going to force us to take the path He’s chosen for us. He allows us to make our own decision; we can choose His path, or we can choose another way to go. It’s up to us.
In Proverbs 3:6, God tells us that if we seek His Will in all we do, He will show us which path to take. So, it stands to reason that if we want a relationship with the person that’s in the destiny God has ordained for our lives, it is incredibly important to learn a few lessons. Not only will they help us discern when Heavenly Father is making a presentation to us, but they will help us to prepare to receive this blessing, to maintain it, and to do as Proverbs 4:23 tells us, which is to guard our hearts above all else.
Lesson 1 – Never play second fiddle
In Deuteronomy 28:13(NLT), through Moses, God told His people, “If you listen to these commands of the LORD your God that I am giving you today, and if you carefully obey them, the LORD will make you the head and not the tail, and you will always be on top and never at the bottom.” This verse conveys how God appreciates and rewards our obedience. He makes us the head, and not the tail. We should never allow anyone to treat us less than what the Father has made us. Never play second fiddle. In other words, don’t allow yourself to be treated as an afterthought. Make sure your time, effort, and personhood is being valued in the same way in which you value others.
Lesson 2 – An empathetic heart is a must
Marriage is God’s institution. Relationships between men and women were His gift to us. It was God who made the decision that the two sexes would exist. One of the reasons He did this is so that we would learn the privilege and intensity of love that is cultivated in a family unit. It is precisely because God has established this relationship between men and women that you and I can have a deeper understanding of what it means to be in relationship with Him. The foundation of our relationship with God is faith and love through the Lord Jesus Christ. It is out of this faith and love that He has set the standard for a man and his interaction with a woman.
Ephesians 5:25(NLT) says, “Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her.” Our Lord and Savior gave everything he had to the church, including his life. Empathy allows us to share and understand the feelings of another. A man is commanded by God to not only understand the level of love that Christ has for the church, but to love his wife in a way that expresses this same love. The boomerang effect of this love is a reciprocity that never ceases. The foundation of it all is the love of Christ.
Again, none of us are perfect; we’re learning to be better in Christ daily, but if a man is a presentation of God to you, this man will have a heart capable of following God’s standard. If he doesn’t, you don’t have anything you can work with. Always seek God, so you can discern a presentation from a trick.
Stay tuned for more lessons…
“Relationship Lessons You Owe It to Yourself to Learn” written for Crazynlove.com ©2019. All rights reserved. All done to the glory of God through Jesus Christ, our Lord!