It is true that the relationship we have with ourselves, with our environment, others, and our creator are largely responsible for how we turn out as a people in life.
There are only two types of relationships, negative or positive, toxic or nurturing.
I would like to highlight an area which a lot of people take for granted and leave to chance.
When it comes to employing a new assistant you choose qualified people, before you buy a new piece of furniture you shop around and satisfy yourself that you are making the right decision, but in terms of friends, as long as we are cool with each other we will be buddies.
In fact no decision is made consciously, you just find yourselves flowing.
I share ten helpful nuggets on different levels of relationships from the life of the Lord Jesus 1.
He had a very strong intimate relationship with God and he regularly related with him in prayer.
2.
He understood that His relationship with God was not based on consensus but obedience.
3.
Even though God was His father, he still understood that He had been sent on assignment by His boss when he declared that," I must do the work of the one who sent me".
4.
He had a relationship with himself.
After working very hard he would say to the disciples lets cross over to the other side of the lake, for reflection, recuperation and refreshment.
Some of us are guilty of neglecting ourselves whilst we are busy serving others.
5.
Jesus had a relationship with the world but it was a general relationship and the most basic level of relationship.
He understood that He came to seek and save the lost, which was the purpose of that relationship.
6.
He had a relationship with the curious multitude that followed him to see what he would do next.
He challenged them by saying you are following me because I have just fed the five thousand with a little boy's lunch? A secure leader will always challenge the motives of those he leads.
He had a relationship with the crowd, these were a smaller group within the multitude and they seemed to follow more consistently and regularly that the multitude 7.
Within the multitude there were the seventy to whom he could delegate some of his work as h sent them out two by two to preach, heal the sick and perform miracles 8 He had a relationship with the twelve disciples, his boys, and his protégé's.
With these he spent a lot of time and deposited wisdom, knowledge, explaining in detail what he is doing and what he wants to do with them.
This is the inner circle 9.
He would go and pray in the mountain with James, Peter and John.
10.
Jesus never developed or nurtured any relationships that were a distraction or hindrance to His assignment.
He did seek the company know the favor of the Pharisees, the hypocrites and the teachers of the law, who were in opposition to His mission