The Joy of Making it Work

Weekly Devotional

Romans 15:5-7

Recently, a friend who has been married for nearly 40 years told me that if his wife were to die before him, he would never remarry because now he knows how much work marriage is!  He was joking, but only half.  We both acknowledged that marriage has tremendous rewards, but a strong marriage requires tremendous commitment, endurance and work.

        Of course, it’s not just marriage.  Plenty of parents have acknowledged that raising a child is a blessing but is also a lot harder than they had thought it would be.  Terrible twos tantrums, separation anxiety, driving lessons and the occasional trip to Juvenile Court can take a toll on love.

        Friendships, too, don’t simply fall into our lap.  At least one party has to risk rejection and take some initiative, push the boundaries, go the extra mile of forgiveness and reconciliation when upset or pain enters. 

        Relationships in general can require a lot of work.  The rewards can be fantastic, but they don’t just happen.  We have to make them happen.

        We should not be surprised, then, that relationships with God require effort, endurance and work; going beyond prayers and regular worship to how we interact with other people.  In fact, a key element of being Christian, of working to build a strong relationship with God, is accepting other people.  To be in a strong relationship with God requires, among other things, that we accept each other as we are.

        Accepting each other appears to be one of the issues facing the young church in Rome.  From what we can gather, the church in Rome included both Jews and Gentiles.  They both worshiped God and accepted Jesus as their Lord and Savior.  But their backgrounds were vastly different, and they had different (sometimes conflicting) views about how best to live their faith.  Paul is urging them to look past these differences and genuinely accept each other as fellow Christians, fellow children of God.

        Our Scriptures, as Paul implies, show us again and again how God reaches out to humanity and how we should all respond.  God’s ultimate act of outreach was coming to earth; being born and living as one of us.  In Jesus, God freely accepted humanity and in so doing freely accepts us all. 

        Let’s respond by accepting each other just as freely.  It will require commitment, endurance and work.  And it will help us form a strong and loving relationship with God.

        God’s peace to us all,

        Pastor Ken.

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