How To Love Like Jesus Through Relationships
Discover the power of relationships in this episode of the Daron podcast. Drawing inspiration from Jesus’ interactions with the Samaritan woman at the well, Daron emphasizes the importance of seeing, knowing, affirming, and giving to others. By prioritizing relationships over material possessions and personal achievements, listeners can find their true purpose and experience the joy of connecting with others. Join Daron on a journey to transform your relationships and make a difference in the world.
Key Takeaways:
⚡️Life’s purpose extends beyond occupations and is deeply rooted in relationships, as portrayed by the relational nature of God.
⚡️Daron introduces the “SKAG principle,” which consists of Seeing, Knowing, Affirming, and Giving to others — representing the core engagement principles in relationships.
⚡️Being truly seen and known by others can be a vulnerable state but is essential for genuine connection and fulfillment.
⚡️Jesus’ encounter with the Samaritan woman illustrates the transformative power of being seen, known, affirmed, and given, despite one’s past or societal standing.
⚡️Aligning with the theme of relationships and embracing these principles can lead to a more meaningful and purpose-driven life.
Quotes:
- “The purpose of life is relationships. I’m living my life to love and to serve people because that’s my purpose.”
- “Jesus had a lot of jobs, could be called a lot of things. But none of them changed his purpose.”
- “Shared joy is a doubled joy. Shared sorrow is a half sorrow.”
- “Jesus knew that she needed to be seen, and he loved her.”
- “Jesus sees, knows, affirms, and gives to people.”
- “Jesus knew everything about her, and he loved her still.”
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VIDEO TRANSCRIPT
Welcome back to another episode of the Daron Earlewine podcast. Daron Earlewine, your host, and thanks so much for downloading this episode. Want to once again, thank you. If you’ve headed over to YouTube, subscribe to the channel there. It’s good to see that as it’s grown back in 2023 and here in the new year, we’d love to double the amount of people that are in the mix on the podcast, the YouTube channel.
So please, if you’re watching on YouTube, take a minute and just subscribe here to the channel. If you’re over on Spotify, Apple Music, wherever you listen to your podcast, just so you know, the podcast is available every week on video. You can watch it on YouTube. If you don’t ever have a desire to ever watch me talk on YouTube, I get it. No problem. Would you just do me a solid and go subscribe to the channel and allow us to have a stronger reach on the platform and make a difference in more individuals’lives, so same thing goes. If you haven’t subscribed here on Spotify or Apple Music, wherever you listen to it, hit that subscribe link and help us grow this platform to make a difference around the world. But thank you. Thank you. Thank you for downloading this episode. I appreciate it. Hope you’re enjoying this series we’re doing called life is right. And the answer is relationships. And we’ve walked through these first two weeks.
First week, we talked about the fact that life is relationships because God is a relationship. Not sure if you’ve ever thought about that concept. It’s kind of mind blowing. I like it. But it makes a lot of sense, is if God is a relationship and he created us, I’m going to guess that the purpose of life is relationships. And then you go a little further and you go, okay, if God is relationships, and the Bible tells me that I’m made in his image, then I am made for relationships because I’m made in the image of God. And so when I’m living my best life, I’m not living a life for things or for places.
I’m living my life to love and to serve people because that’s my purpose. And I think that helps a ton. We talk all the time here on the podcast. In fact, you may listen to the podcast because you’re seeking purpose in your life. And what I found is all too often, even in my own life, when I say I’m seeking purpose in my life, what I’m really trying to figure out is occupation, right? I hate my job.
I don’t fulfill my job. Therefore, I’m trying to go find a new occupation that would feel less like work, more like play. And maybe I could call that my purpose in life. Well, God’s been really helping me understand this at a deeper level. Let me apologize if I didn’t teach it well in the past 40 years and if I sent you in the wrong direction. I’ve been doing getting mentored by a great guy out California. He’s a pastor leader in the marketplace as well. His name’s Dave Gibbons. And back in December, through a relationship, one relationship led to, another relationship led to a relationship with Dave. And I was able to do three days of mentoring and training with him.
And he taught me something I’m going to teach you in this episode that’s been rocking my world and is really shaping what I think is going to be what’s going to be my focus and purpose for the rest of my life. And what it comes down to is that as human beings, we actually all have the same transcendent calling of God, which is rooted in who he is as a relationship and the fact that we’re created in his image and the deep, holy, amazing, across the board purpose of humanity is relationships.
It’s the ability to see, know, affirm, and bless other people. It’s who God is. It’s what God has done. It’s woven into the fabric of the covenant that he’s given us. And what I hope this episode possibly does for you in 2024 and beyond is helps you realize that your purpose as a human being has no connection to your occupation. 0.00 when I was talking with Dave, he made this point, and I don’t know why I had never thought about this, but once he said it, I started thinking about it. A lot is Jesus had a lot of jobs, could be called a lot of things.
So when God sent his son to earth to fulfill the purpose of saving humanity from their sin and reconnecting the ability for humanity to have a relationship with God, which was their original design and purpose, they chose a job for Jesus. He was a carpenter. That was his occupation. Jesus, the carpenter from Nazareth. But has anyone ever thought that carpentry is synonymous with savior of the world?
Like, oh, you know those carpenters that come and build the houses, they’re just out there saving civilizations, you know what I mean? That’s usually a messiah type job. When you have the carpenter job, usually you end up being a messiah of a planet and a race, a human race, the entire universe. No, you’ve never once thought about Jesus’occupation having anything to do with his purpose. So why do we?
Well, there’s lots of reasons. We’re not going to pack all the reasons, but I just want you to let that mess with you a little bit. Like Jesus made wine, Jesus was a rabbi, Jesus was a fisherman, Jesus was a carpenter. He did all of these things, wore a lot of different uniforms as the son of God, but none of them, none of the occupations he had, none of the vocations, he had changed his purpose. And not one vocation, one job that you have will change your calling or keep you from being able to accomplish your calling, which is relationships.
As I was in this training with Dave, he talked about what he called the skag principle, and that was an acronym for the word see, know, affirm and give. I want to walk you through the power of these four words because I believe they are the four foundational tenets of. When we say here on the podcast, you are made on purpose and for the purposes of God, it is these four things. Now here’s the really amazing thing about God, is that when you begin to understand that core principle, when you begin to understand that this is, bar none, foundationally, this is my calling as a human being connected to the relationship that is God.
This is what I do. Right. The amazing thing about God is he actually has created you uniquely with specific talents and gifts and abilities and passions and a path that you’ve walked. Right. And unique pain that you’ve gone through. We talk about this a lot in spiritual dna. There is a unique way he’s created you. And a lot of times those do actually team up with an occupation that you’re very uniquely gifted. To be amazing at, to have a sense of fulfillment at, to be great at creating within God. Is that good?
That’s like the icing on the cake, though, because the thing that’s going to truly bring you meaning and fulfillment in your life is the core calling of what we are as human beings made in the image of God, who is a relationship. The other stuff is just the details, but the details are awesome. And they’re specifically made details for you, which is the greatest combo meal ever. So how do we do it?
How do we do these relationships? I want to go to 2024. Darn you. I’m bought in man. Episode one and two. Blew my mind. I loved them. I’m aspired. I’m back. I’m not about people. I’m not about places. I’m not about things. I want to be about people. So how do I be with people? Million dollar question. We’re going to take a look at this amazing story from Jesus’s life. Because once again, we study Jesus’life. Right? Because we’re made in his image. To know if he is a relationship, he knows how to do a relationship, that I need to study his image and what he did so I can know, how do I show up and be with people like he was with people. So we’re going to go to John chapter four. But before we go to John chapter four, I want to hit you with this r1, quick. In Matthew chapter one, Christmas story happens. Correct?
It says in verse 22, all this took place, everything that happened around Christmas. To fulfill what the Lord had said through the prophet, the virgin will conceive, give birth to a son, and they will call him Emmanuel, which means, anyone, Bueller. God with us. Emmanuel, the name they gave Jesus means God with us, because life is relationships, right. God with us. John 114. The word right was with God, right was God. The beginning, he was a relationship, and then the word became flesh and made his dwelling among us.
He is with us. Emmanuel, God with us. He is with us, right? Not far away. He is for us, not against us. He has created us on purpose and for his purposes, say it every single week. So if that’s who Jesus is, he’s Emmanuel, God with us. And he says, hey, you’re made my image. I’m a relationship. Your purpose is relationship. So how do I be with people? I’m going to do it like he did it. How do I be with people? And it breaks down, in my opinion.
What I’ve been learning recently, this is hot off the press. I’m trying to figure out how to do it my own life, okay? I’d probably be smarter if I lived with a concept that I learned for like, a couple of years and then taught you it. The way I do things is the moment I understand a concept, I want to teach it to you, even if I haven’t even completely learned it yet. I also usually there’s two different kinds of people in the world. With this.
If I buy a new shirt, new shorts, new shoes, new hat, the percentage chance I wear that the next day after it’s been purchased is 99.998%. I did the math one time. I didn’t do the math one time. I love to wear new stuff. My wife, she’s different. She can get something new, and it’d be in there, in the closet, and I’ll see it because I see a tag, because I know you just bought it, because it’s got tag still on it, meaning it was purchased and not worn, because there’s a tag on it. And that thing will sit there for weeks, if not months. And I see it, and I think, you’ve got a new piece of clothing. How are you not wearing this new piece of clothing? That doesn’t even make sense. It’s incomprehensible to me.
For me, I learn something, I teach it, I buy it, I wear it. That’s how it works. So I don’t know how to do this yet. Kind of learning. I’ve got a new goal. Here’s what it comes down to. My goal in life now is to see people. How do I be with them? I see them. I do my best to know them. I affirm them, and then I give to them or I bless them. These are the four pillars, the four foundations to being with and LOvIng people in Relationship.
If you want to say, Daron, what is my goal in 2024? I want my life to be about relationships. Here’s Your four goals. I need you to see people. I need you to know people. I need you to affirm people, and I need you to give to people. Jesus lays this out and does this so powerfully in John, chapter four, here’s what happens. Jesus is going with his disciples, and they leave Judea, and they’re going back to Galilee.
Says in verse four of John four. Now, he had to go through SamAria. So he came to a small town in Samaria called Psychar. Now, this is INTEresTing. He had to go through Samaria. We’ve talked about this on the podcast Before. I think maybe I did, maybe I didn’t. If I didn’t, here we go. Bottom line is this. JesuS did not have to go through SAmAria. In fact, none of the Jews ever went through Samaria.
Here’s a little breakdown of it. Israel is only 120 miles long, which is interesting from north to south. I live in Indiana. To put that in CONTEXT, Indiana is 250 miles north and south. So Jerusalem or Israel, much shorter than even Indiana. Indiana, not a big state. And so if you were going, there was three territories. In the extreme north was, okay. In the extreme south was Judea. And in the middle is the capital city of Jerusalem and in between them is Samaria.
Now, there’s a lot of racial tension that went on between Jews and Samaritans. They didn’t believe they were full blooded, or they weren’t full blooded Jews. And so they would call them dogs. They would say, you can’t touch. You can’t be around Samaritans. And so what Israelites would do is, when they had to go through Samaria, they never went through Samaria. They went around Samaria. It was a much longer trip. It was annoying, but they did it all the time. Because they did not want.
Okay, go with me here. Because we’re talking about seeing, right? They didn’t want to see them. I don’t want to see the Samaritans. I don’t want to touch the Samaritans. Like they’re below me, right? If we’re in competitions, we’re winning. They don’t deserve my attention. Maybe they’ve hurt me. Fill in the blank. I’m not trying to see any samaritans. This says, now, Jesus had to go through Samaria.
He didn’t have to. Jesus chose to. Why did Jesus choose to go through Samaria? Because Jesus knew that life was relationships. And everything else is just the details. Jesus knew there was a samaritan woman that was there that he needed to see. But more importantly, he knew there was a samaritan woman there that needed to be seen. And I don’t know about you guys. I’m not good at this. Let me just be self deprecating and vulnerable to you.
When I go into a room, I don’t see everybody. I usually see the people that I think are interesting. Maybe the people that I think that are attractive, maybe the people that I think it would be a benefit to me if I spoke to that person. Maybe they’re important. Maybe they’re well known. Maybe they’re well connected. Maybe they have nice shoes. I don’t know. But I don’t go into a room often and see everyone, and I’m trying to work on them.
And I’ll even say, there are some people. If we’re going to list all the different breakdowns of people in our world and society, there are some people on the list, probably, that I try not to see. Kind of like samaritans. I’m going to just go on a big guess here and say, that you might be somewhat similar to me, and you go, yeah, Daron, there’s some people that I don’t like to see, and it may not even have to be about different parts of the city or whatever else. Or that they’re different than you or whatever.
If we get really vulnerable, you might have to admit there’s some people close to me in my life. Maybe we share last names, and I don’t want to see them. And when I’m in their presence, I don’t look at them. It’s going to be really tough for us to love people the way Jesus did and to be with them if we won’t see them. Tell you, one of the tough things about this, though, is I think sometimes when relationships have failed us and life feels difficult and we’ve been hurt by relationships, sometimes we’re on the other side of it is that we don’t want to be seen.
Because when we allow ourself to be seen, what happens is the next word on our list of the four foundations of love. Because when we’re seen, we have the potential risk of being known. And being known is really, really scary. To be fully seen and to be fully known and not loved, I would say, is hell on earth. You forget the details of the things or the places. We’re just talking about the people. You find me someone who feels unseen and unknown, or is seen and known and not loved, that person is living in hell on earth.
And the amazing thing about Jesus, the example he sets here, is with this woman at the well. He has to go and see her because she needs to be seen and he loves her. And then as the story goes on, he begins to show her that she is fully known and fully loved. And there’s going to be two sides of this coin as we walk through this, of what does it mean to love like that? And then what does it mean to be loved?
Hey, I got a quote for you. Shared joy is a doubled joy. Shared sorrow is a half sorrow. When I heard that quote, I knew I had lived it right when I was going through the death of my dream, the living part of it, when it was being created, I did it with other people, and it was amazing. It doubled the joy. But when it died, and I tried, had to figure out what do I do with my life? I
I know you’ve probably experienced the death of a dream as well. And here’s the good news. God wants to resurrect a new purpose in your life, and you can’t walk that journey alone. That’s why I’m so excited to announce the release of the death of a dream. Small group curriculum this curriculum is video based. You’re going to get together with a group of people, watch videos where I’m teaching concepts through each chapter, as well as powerful insights that didn’t make it in the book.
They’re going to help you walk together through the process of discovering God’s call in your life. Seeing God resurrect a sense of purpose and hope, it’s going to be amazing. There’s also a great journal that goes along with it. It’s going to help you have a process and a guide to observe, reflect, discuss, and open up the insights that are going to lead you into what God wants to do in your future. So listen, here’s your quick action steps.
And get a group together. Invite some friends to join you. Go to Daron earlywine.com thedeathofadream. Buy the curriculum, schedule a time, get together, and begin the process of walking together towards the resurrection of your purpose. Once again, it’s at Daron earlywine.com. Slash the death of a dream. Thanks. So Jesus shows up at the well, and he asks a woman for a drink. Will you give me a drink?
And she’s kind of caught off guard, like, who are you? A jew and a jewish man talking to me, a samaritan. And it says in the story also that she’s there at noon, which is the heat of the day. In their culture. All the women would have come at the beginning of the day, probably before sunrise, to go out and get water for the day. She wasn’t with the women of the city because she was already rejected by the women of the city. So she came by herself to the well at noon because she didn’t want to be seen with or by anyone else.
Jesus knew this. So Jesus sits down, and they begin to have more of a conversation. Jesus says to her, if you knew the gift of God and who it is that asks you for a drink, you would have asked him and he would have given you living water. Sir, the woman said, you have nothing to draw with, and the well is deep. Where can you get this living water? Are you greater than our father Jacob, who gave us the well and drank from it himself, as also did his sons and his livestock?
So what’s happening is here is she’s seen. This is OD. There’s this jewish man here. Why is he here? Why is he here? At noon, right? Why is he talking to me? Why does he see me? Then he begins to ask deeper questions, and I believe she begins to get defensive because she’s afraid that she might be found out, she might be known. Because what he might know is that you might have a reputation in town, is why you’re here by yourself at noon.
And what she didn’t need was another man in her life judging her or rejecting her, but as only Jesus could, because his goal was. His goal was that this woman needs to be seen, and this woman needs to be known. So Jesus does what only Jesus can do here, and he says, hey, go call your husband and come back now. Because Jesus had the power of the Holy Spirit, which, by the way, you do too. And God can reveal things to you that you may need to know about someone to let them know that you know, and you actually still affirm and love them.
But Jesus knew that she hadn’t have a husband. And she responds, well, I have no husband. And Jesus says to her, you’re right when you say you have no husband. The fact is you’ve had five husbands, and the man you have now is not your husband. What you have said is quite true. Now, this is a dicey moment. Jesus is speaking to the brokenness in her life that is broken and damaged every relationship that she has. And if her life is relationships, because she was also made in the image of God, who is a relationship, follow this.
Why are we so defensive when we feel like we may be exposed and known and not loved? Because it terrifies the very core of the essence of what we are as human beings. I would say that the majority, if not all, of decisions that you make in your life, of how loud you talk, where you talk, how you style your hair, what clothes you wear, what cars you drive, everything, everything that makes up your personality or the Persona that you show off to the world.
All of this has been intricately and specifically constructed to keep you from being known. Why? Because to be known and not affirmed and loved is hell on earth. So it makes sense why you’re that way in a relationship. So then if I’m made in the image of God, and you’re made in the image of God, and God’s image is he is a relationship, and now I’m partnered with him. So now I partner with him to move into my actual calling and core purpose of a human being is to see and love and know people for relationships, then what I have to know is what I do is I get the opportunity as a representative of Jesus to see and to know people and let them know that when I see them and I know them, I love them.
Could there be any greater purpose and calling in life to know that you’re connected to the actual purpose for all of humanity and you have a cheat code that you know actually how to help people find their God given, God designed purpose, which is relationship. I see you, I know you, and I want to know you. And when I know you, I won’t reject you. Tv show that I’ve loved. I’ve only gotten through season one of it is the tv show the chosen. I usually really don’t like christian entertainment because I think it’s cheesy. This one’s not. If you haven’t watched the chosen get into it. I’m going to try to knock out season two here soon.
This scene is in season one, and it’s amazingly powerful. They take a little liberty sometimes in the chosen where it’s not unbiblical at all. I think it’s most biblical, but you could call it extra biblical. They add some conversation and some context that would not be hard to see that it would have exactly happened the way that they portray it in the series. And what happens in this moment. The first time I watched it. The second time I watched it. The third time watched it. I could not help but break down in tears as I watched this interaction, because what happens is they get to this point in the conversation, and the woman is angry, and she know when the Messiah comes, he’ll fix this mess, and maybe he can fix my mess. And she understands. This man knows me.
He knows I’ve had five husbands. He knows what’s going on in my life, and I don’t need to feel the pain of rejection again. So in the scene, she picks up her water jug, and she begins to walk away. And Jesus stands up and he says this. The first one was Ramin. You are a woman of purity who was excited to be married, but he wasn’t a good man. And he hurts you, and it made you question marriage and even the practice of your faith. And she says, stop it.
She begins to cry, because now he’s going to a level of knowing he shouldn’t know and a level of knowing of not just. You’ve had five husbands. Well, the first one was named Ramin, and this is what happened. And she says, stop it. The second was Frazad. On your wedding night, his skin smelled like oranges. And to this day, every time you pass by the oranges in the market, you feel guilty for leaving him because he was the only truly godly man you’ve ever been with, but you felt unworthy.
She looks back at Jesus now with greater tears. She says, why are you doing this? Why are you exposing my pain? Because, like I said, to be seen, fully seen, and fully known and not loved is hell on earth. And she feels like she’s being invited into hell in this moment, and she’s broken and she’s scared. And she says, why are you doing this? But what she doesn’t know is that Jesus is about to rescue her from her hell and set her free to fulfill her God given purpose, which is relationship.
This is amazing. Jesus, he says, to this moment, I have not revealed myself to the public as the messiah. You are the first. Now, in the Bible, that line isn’t there, but the reality is there is that this is the first person on the planet that Jesus reveals himself as MesSIaH. This SamarItAn woman who no one wanted to see, no one wanted to know who was by herself at this well. And Jesus says, the purpose of my life is relatIonships, and I will be with people, and I will see them, and I will know them, and I will affirm them in their brokenness. And the way I will affirm this woman is she will be the first person I ever tell that I’m the messiah.
Jesus said, it would be good if you believed me. She says, you picked the wrong person. She can’t believe that this kind of relationship and love would be given to her. And Jesus says, I came to Samaria just to meet you, just to see you, just to know you. She says, I am rejected by others. And then Jesus says, I know, but not by the messiah. And the woman looks into Jesus’s eyes, and all she sees is love. And she begins to weep as she realizes she’s staring into the face of God himself. And guess what he’s about.
Relationship with her. He sees her. He knows her. He affirms her. And he gives his spirit as he says, you’re here looking for water, water that will make you thirsty again. But I give you water that you will never thirst from the streams of living water will pour it over your life. I will give my spirit so I can be with you always. Emmanuel God with you, to see you, to know you, to affirm you, to give to you.
The story goes, the woman runs back with joy overflowing and begins to tell everyone in her village, I just met a man that knows everything about me. And this is her Message. She’s the first missionary ever sent out by Jesus, this samaritan woman with a shady, tough, difficult, broken background. She’s seen, she’s known, she’s affirmed and she’s blessed to be sent out to be the first missionary and the message she brings to her villages.
I just met a man that knew everything about me but she doesn’t finish the sentence. What is inferred by we know how she carried this was and loved me still. And I’m telling you friends, if we want to experience the best year of our life, if we want to walk into this year and say I’ve found my life’s purpose, if we want to live this year and say man, I’m experiencing the joy of what it feels like to be like Jesus, here’s how it’s going to happen.
We commit to ourselves. This is what we’re going to do. I’m putting relationships as the number one thing in my life. First and foremost my relationship with God, then my relationship with myself, then my relationship with others. And then I’ll mix in some things in some places when I have time and when I show up to be with people like Jesus because I’m created in his image, in his image and his image is a relationship because he’s a relationship in himself. And this is my life. Here’s my goal today.
I’m going to see people, I’m going to say, God, open my eyes to see people that need to be seen today specifically for me. People of peace to my life. God and Lord, give me the ability to know them. And here’s what’s the amazing thing God can do. God can actually use your mind and speak to you through his holy spirit and tell you things that you didn’t know about someone. It’s a prophetic gifting that he can give you that you would be able to know someone in a way that they wouldn’t know how. You would know that. But you don’t know it to compete. You don’t know it to manipulate, you don’t know it to shame. You know it to affirm them.
Can you imagine this year you being able to ask curious questions, to become compassionate in all the relationships where people would begin to open their hearts, their stories, their pain to you and you would say, I see you. Listen, I know what you had to go through and here’s what I want you to know. I affirm you, you are created in the image of God. You are dearly loved, you are redeemable. God has a plan and a purpose for your life and I’m going to be with you. I’m going to be with you because Jesus is with me, because he is relationships. And that’s my calling of my life. So listen, I see you. I know you. My heart breaks for you. I love you. You have value, you have worth. I affirm who you are as a person. And listen, I just want to bless you.
I want to give to you of my time, my talent, a job. I don’t know what it looks like. I want to give and I want to bless you. Why? Because that’s what God does for me. And I tell you what I’d love for us. And maybe we start sharing these skag stories, right? See, no, affirm, give. If you get a story where you did this and God showed up and you realize, oh, my gosh, I found my life’s purpose. Like, send me an email, let’s collect the stories. Because here’s what I know.
I know that God will take us to people and he will take us to places and we will experience things that we could never imagine because we’re connecting to the purpose of all humanity, which is relationships. You want to change your parenting? Start seeing, knowing, affirming and giving to your kids. You want to change your marriage? Then become like Jesus. Don’t see a quality as something to be grasped, but humble yourself. Become a servant. Say, I’m in my marriage to see my spouse, to know them, to know what they’re really going to. Not so I can compete, not so I can condemn, but I want to know them and let them know that they can be fully known and fully loved here, so I can affirm who they are and the image of God that I see in them and that I’m going to give.
I’m going to give my time, I’m going to give my affection. I’m going to give my love. I’m going to give myself to them. We start doing that. Friends, guess what? We’re going to find the purpose of life and we’re going to find all the joy and all the hope and all the faith and all the excitement and everything that God has for us. What a calling and what a year we might get to have together. I’m going to try, you guys.
I’m not that good at it. But here’s what’s really good, is Jesus tells us in John 14 that he’s going to ask the father, and the father’s going to give us another advocate to help us, to be with us forever. The spirit of truth says the world can’t accept him because neither sees them or knows him, but you know him, for he lives with you and will be in you. God’s holy spirit can help us do this. God with us. God in us. God for us, not against us.
So, hey, I want to wrap up this episode and I want to pray for us in the remaining of our year. Let’s do that. Heavenly Father, I thank you for who you are. Thank you that you are with us, you are loving and that you are merciful. Father, I thank you that you are a relationship. And that’s why we feel them so deeply. That’s why we desire them so much. And that’s why when they break, it breaks us so painfully.
But God, I pray that in all of our lives, as we step into this new year, pray that your kingdom would come and your will would be done. In our lives, Father, I pray that your kingdom would break in and the way it would break in is that you would begin to recalibrate and reorder our priorities. Father, we would see that our life is relationships in places where it’s not. I pray you would give us the courage and the wisdom to recalibrate.
God, I pray that you would move and your provision would come into our life. The places and things, Father, would be taken care of and we wouldn’t be so focused on them because we would have time to focus on the relationships. I pray that you would lead us away from the temptations to just take care of ourself or to focus on things or just focus on places. And that you would give us the power of your holy spirit, Father, to allow us to see, first and foremost, God, that you would give us the courage to allow ourself to be seen and known and affirmed from you to receive your gifts of your love and your holy spirit. So as we receive, then, God, we can become a blessing.
That you would give us eyes to see people that feel invisible, that you would give us spiritual insight, compassion, to know the pain and the story of others, to not judge, not to compete, but father, to speak compassion, love, to affirm them into who you’ve created them to be. Give us words of wisdom and insight and courage to speak it into people’s lives, people that have never been affirmed, people that have never been celebrated, people that have never been told that they were created on purpose and for the purposes of God, give us the courage to do it.
Then I pray, God, that you would just allow us to humble ourselves to find such joy in giving, giving people the time to sit across a table and have coffee, to go to breakfast, to go to dinner, to go on a trip to get a job. Father, we would give blessings. We would give our time, we would give our talent. We would give our treasures away to other people. And by doing so, God, I pray that we would experience our best year ever.
We love you. We need your help, Holy Spirit and I thank you that we can ask and that you will answer. We love you. Ask these things in Jesus’name. Amen.