The Bible has a lot to say about relationships; relationships with God, relationships with our families, relationships with our friends and even with our enemies.  And we all value the relationships that we have.  However, many of us realize that after committing to a life dedicated to God that some relationships tend to become strained.  There is tension between spending time with friends and family and spending time with them in ways that honor God and don’t draw us back into a lifestyle from where we’ve repented.  There are some people that we learn that we simply can’t be in relationship any longer and that’s ok!  Jesus Himself said that He didn’t come to bring peace but a sword resulting in sons against fathers and daughters against mothers.

 

Relationships with people are important, even those who don’t believe in God as you might.  But all relationships must be kept in proper prospective.  I want to characterize 3 different categories of people that we have in our lives.

 

dTO, WITH, FOR

 

The first category is those who we RUN TO.  These are those people who live a life that we find commendable.  They are those who excel in parts of their lives in such a way that we can model ourselves after them.  They are those who lead, mentor and disciple us.  These are those such as Elisha had Elijah to look up to, Joshua had Moses and Ruth had Naomi.  I often tell my members that everyone ought to disciple and be discipled.  Who’s discipling you?  Who is encouraging you towards greatness?  Who is holding you accountable?  We all need people in our lives who we RUN TO.

 

Next, we need people who we RUN WITH.  These are our friends who we need to keep us on the straight and narrow.  These are our spouses with whom we press for the prize of the high calling of God.  We all need people who’s shoulders we can cry on, problems we can talk about, and encouragement we can both give and receive.

 

Finally, we have people in our lives that we RUN FOR.  We should all be modeling living a Godly life.  There are those who are looking at us that we are aware of and many more who are watching us that we don’t even realize.  These are often those with whom we’ve had relationships before coming into a relationship with Jesus.  We have a commission or calling of God to live for God on their behalf.  It’s part of the Great Commission.  We should lead people to know God for themselves and encourage to live a life according to His will.  That’s discipling.  We model this for friends, co-workers, classmates, and even our children who will one day have to make a personal decision for God for themselves.

 

So keep running.  And while you’re running this race of life, always have someone that you RUN FOR, RUN WITH and RUN TO.