Few people have great relationships but a great relationship is worth more than all the money in the world. A great relationship is a true gift from God and once a person has a great relationship, whether it is a friend or a spouse, they will never be the same. A great relationship brings great joy and is medicine to the soul. It brings comfort when nothing else can comfort, lifts a person up when they are down, minimizes their sorrows and brings joy to their heart and healing to their soul.
A joyful heart is good medicine, Proverbs 17:22a
A great relationship allows one to accomplish far more than they could ever have accomplished without it. A great relationship brings the best out in each of the ones in the relationship and teaches a person to love and to trust to a deeper level than ever imaginable.
there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24b
A great relationship makes the heart glad and brings good counsel that is sweet to the one needing it.
Oil and perfume make the heart glad, So a man’s counsel is sweet to his friend. Proverbs 27:9
God made us to be in great relationships and He sent His only begotten Son so that we may be able to be in great relationships. He wants us to have a great marriage and great friendships. A great relationship is only possible through Jesus Christ, who came to reconcile us to a great relationship with a great God.
Now all these things are from God, who reconciled us to Himself through Christ and gave us the ministry of reconciliation, II Corinthians 5:18
The Lord wants us to be reconciled to others once we are reconciled to Himself. We can only give to others what we have received ourselves.
Therefore, we are ambassadors for Christ, as though God were making an appeal through us; we beg you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God. II Corinthians 5:20
He came to show us what a great relationship looks like.
Greater love has no one than this, that one lay down his life for his friends. John 15:13
A great relationship has a great love that is willing to lay down their lives for their friends. Jesus Christ laid down His life for us. He came to be our friend and wants to be our friend.
but I have called you friends, for all things that I have heard from My Father I have made known to you. John 15:15b
Jesus Christ has entrusted His great friendship to us. He wants us to learn to be a great friend to others. We can do that when we learn to trust Him. A friend loves at all times and that is the friend that we have in Jesus Christ. He loves us at all times. He loves us no matter how often we fail, how deep we fall, how far we stray, or how unfaithful we are. If we will only come back to Him then we will be restored and experience His great love.
A friend loves at all times, Proverbs 17:17a
You can be this great friend to someone else. Not many people have someone who will love them when they feel that no one else loves them. It is easy to love the lovable. Everyone can do that but only a great person can love one who does not deserve love. Only a great person can be a friend to others in spite of their failings or love a spouse when the spouse has failed and only a great person can be in a great relationship. When two people learn what it means to be great in God’s eyes then they will have learned what it means to be a great person and then they will be able to have a great relationship.
And there arose also a dispute among them as to which one of them was regarded to be greatest. And He said to them, “The kings of the Gentiles lord it over them; and those who have authority over them are called ‘Benefactors.’ But it is not this way with you, but the one who is the greatest among you must become like the youngest, and the leader like the servant. Luke 22:24-26
In the world, a person may be considered great because of success, position, power or beauty but those are not the characteristics of true greatness. True greatness is humbling oneself and seeking the success of others. A truly great person will not use you to seek their success but they will seek what is best for you. A truly great person will consider you more important than himself. For this reason, only a truly great person can have a great relationship because a truly great person can be trusted. Jesus Christ proved Himself to be the greatest man of all when He walked on earth. Jesus Christ, the Son of God, equal with the Father, humbled Himself and considered others more important than Himself.
Do nothing from selfishness or empty conceit, but with humility of mind regard one another as more important than yourselves; do not merely look out for your own personal interests, but also for the interests of others. Have this attitude in yourselves which was also in Christ Jesus, who, although He existed in the form of God, did not regard equality with God a thing to be grasped, but emptied Himself, taking the form of a bond-servant, and being made in the likeness of men. Philippians 2:3-7
A truly great person will do nothing from selfishness or conceit. They are secure in who they are and do not need to use others to bolster their poor self image. They will find greater joy in the success of others and in doing so the Lord will bless them. A truly great person realizes that His worth is in God and that he can love others because he knows that he is loved with an everlasting love that does not change. A truly great person experiences more joy than others and because he has learned to water the lives of others then he is confident that the Lord will water his life.
And he who waters will himself be watered. Proverbs 11:25
A truly great person is a joy to be around, a light to others and a picture of God’s love. This is the person that the Lord is making each one of His children into and one day they will be like Him, when they see Him.
Beloved, now we are children of God, and it has not appeared as yet what we will be. We know that when He appears, we will be like Him, because we will see Him just as He is. I John 3:2
Instructions To A Young Life 