Spiritual Retreat Part II

Here is part two of "The Talk"

Attention – Time – Honesty – Deep Commitment – Sharing

Attention - Any married man knows that our wives crave (demand) our attention. If we fail to let them know we value them by paying attention to them, they hear “I don’t love you.”

The more attention I pay to God, the more the relationship flourishes, the more I learn, because the more He can reveal.

Time – My wife shared a quote she heard the other day “Love = Time” (probably a hint)

Kind of turns the old idea about quality over quantity on its head.
The average man in America spends 15 min./day with his children, 20 min/day with his spouse and ? min/sec a day with his God.

Any wonder our children have no direction, we have a 53% divorce rate, and our churches are in decline?

My best relationships are maintained and nurtured with TIME and I’ll mention time doing what in a second.

Honesty – Of course God knows the truth so why do we need to tell Him? True honest for me makes me vulnerable. I admit my fears, anger, and weaknesses before Him and His knowledge of me becomes real to me.

If I had prayed “Thy will be done” in my Mom’s death but never admitted to Him that I was pretty ticked off that He didn’t heal her, I would have Reverence for God, but not Relationship with my Father.

My daughter has full permission to be angry with me, and to tell me about it. Once when I wrongly accused her of not being honest with me she broke into huge tears and yelled, “You’re such a bad Daddy!” Far from hurting our relationship, that opened us up for reconciliation, and she saw my love for her could handle it.

In His relationship with us, can God want any less? (He deserves our reverence and craves relationship)

Deep Commitment – Exodus 20:5 says in part “…for I the LORD your God am a jealous God.” His first commandment on the stone tablets was “Thou shalt have no other God before me.” That means anything I worship other than him, money, TV, friends, work. Just as I expect my wife to keep her wedding vows to me and be committed to maintaining and building our relationship, God seeks for that same type of deep commitment in His and my relationship.

Sharing – Two heads are better than one. When my wife and I share in our bearing of each other’s burdens we have greater strength to face them.

Listen to this awesome source of strength Jesus promised us as we remain in relationship with him found in John 15: 4&5

“Abide in me and I in you. As the vine branch can not bear fruit of itself unless it abides in the vine, so neither can you, unless you abide in me. I am the vine and you are the branches; he who abides in Me and I in him, he bears much fruit; for apart from Me you can do nothing.”

In this relationship with God, we share our HEARTS with HIM. He gets our burdens, we bear the fruit. And God is glorified.

Part III tomorrow...