When God interferes with your relationships …

Whether you want Him to or not, God will interfere with your relationships.

There’s a primary reason why: God created you for Him, and He demands to have first place in your life.

“Jesus replied, ‘The most important commandment is this: “Listen, O Israel! The Lord our God is the one and only Lord. And you must love the Lord your God with all your heart, all your soul, all your mind, and all your strength”,'” Mark 12:29-30.

That does mean that all other relationships will never know their fullest possible fruition according to God’s design if you have them mis-prioritized with regard to God’s place in your life.

Let’s look at a couple of examples from scripture …

Friendship is one of the greatest loves we will experience in life. It’s God’s plan for us to know the richness of friendships. One of the greatest friendships recorded in the Bible was the friendship between David and Jonathan …

“After David had finished talking with Saul, he met Jonathan, the king’s son. There was an immediate bond between them, for Jonathan loved David. From that day on Saul kept David with him and wouldn’t let him return home. And Jonathan made a solemn pact with David, because he loved him as he loved himself. Jonathan sealed the pact by taking off his robe and giving it to David, together with his tunic, sword, bow, and belt,” 1 Samuel 18:1-4.

“How I weep for you, my brother Jonathan! Oh, how much I loved you! And your love for me was deep, deeper than the love of women!” 2 Samuel 1:26.

Jonathan was a prince, the son of King Saul, and David was just a young shepherd boy. But from the moment they met, they liked each other and became great friends.

But that friendship would cost Jonathan far more than it would David. As it turned out, God would replace Saul as king … not with the heir, Jonathan the prince, but with David!

And Jonathan fully supported God’s decision!

The very man to whom Jonathan would lose his future as king in Israel was his best friend. David would grow in stature as a great leader directly at Jonathan’s expense. But God had a plan for David, and a plan for Jonathan. For David, it was to become king; for Jonathan, it was to step aside. Because these men gave God the right priority in their lives, God was exalted above all others, and because of that their friendship could know the greatest of love among friends.

Let’s take a quick peek at a marriage …

Joseph and Mary were two teens in love. They were engaged to be married. Imagine the dreams they must have had of a life together!

Then God stepped in …

He was volunteering them to be the earthly mother and step-father to the Son of God. To do so meant the Child they would raise would come to them through a miraculous conception …

“The angel replied, ‘The Holy Spirit will come upon you, and the power of the Most High will overshadow you. So the baby to be born will be holy, and he will be called the Son of God,” Luke 1:35.

This divine appointment as parents would result in a scandal Joseph and Mary would never live down. But because they both made God the priority relationship in their individual lives, together they were able to weather the false accusations and condemnation of others and go on to have a marriage that would be blessed with other children after Jesus was born.

Scripture helps us understand a simple lesson: to have the best possible relationships in our lives, our greatest relationship must be with God, and all other relationships must be in subjection to that great relationship.

Is that how your relationships are structured? Is God the single greatest love of your life? Are all other relationships in your life subject to your relationship with God?

Scotty