HOW TO BUILD AND MAINTAIN A HEALTHY RELATIONSHIP

Rev. Michael Benson Ajayi

 John 6:27 NKJV “Do not labour for the food which perishes, but for the food which endures to everlasting life, which the Son of Man will give you, because God the Father has set His seal on Him."

       Large crowds often followed Jesus Christ wherever He went because their needs where being met. He miraculously fed about nine thousand persons on separate occasions. Therefore, being in any of Jesus’ meeting was a sure guarantee for free food for most followers. Of course there were those who followed Him for the purpose of being healed.

          However, Jesus did not want to be seen as one whose sole purpose was to feed people and meet their material needs; therefore, when a group of persons who have been on His trail for days finally caught up with Him saying "Rabbi, when did You come here?" Jesus answered them and said, "Most assuredly, I say to you, you seek Me, not because you saw the signs, but because you ate of the loaves and were filled.” (John 6:25-26 NKJV). He went further to say they should hunger for the food that gives eternal satisfaction. This food is the word of God which Jesus preached (Matt4:4).

          God places His seal on those who receive this sure word. The Greek word for ‘seal’ is the word ‘sphragizo’ which means; to stamp with a private mark for security or preservation, it also means ‘to secretly keep, and also to attest: What this means is that those who are open to receiving God’s word in to their hearts haven made an irrevocable commitment to live by the Word will experience divine preservation and be distinguished from others by virtue of God’s private mark upon them. God is committed to guarantee or endorse whatever venture they set out to achieve against the destructive tendencies of the wicked one.

          These persons are referred to as the sons of God (John1:12) they are led by the Spirit of Christ and are the ones King David spoke of when he said in  Ps 37:25-26 NKJV “I have been young, and now am old; Yet I have not seen the righteous forsaken, Nor his descendants begging bread. He is ever merciful, and lends; And his descendants are blessed.”  Unfortunately, a lot of church attendees do so for material gains only; this results in very unstable and unfruitful spiritual lives. This kind of behavior exposes us to demonic manipulations and oppressive fear ( Luke 11:24-26,Matt.12:43-45).

               Serving God requires strong commitment and an end to a self–centered life. Most people rather remain with their selfish ways and can’t stand being told to commit their lives to God. They often seek for a relationship they can benefit from without bringing anything to the table. They loath any form of giving for missionary work. Over 60 % of Jesus’ disciples abandoned Him when He began to talk about commitment to God. It is this refusal to commit that has led to the crisis in marriages in the church of Christ. People are afraid to commit to a relationship. They prefer to work out their salvation so they can claim the glory but God will not share His glory with any man, that is why salvation is a gift; no man can boast about it (Eph2:9)  and the benefits of salvation can only be fully enjoyed when we make a commitment to the work of Christ. This work is simply to believe in the words of Jesus Christ as written in the Holy Scriptures (John6:29) .God loves you dearly and desires to have an intimate relationship with you through His son Jesus Christ and it starts with you giving Him the place of preeminence in your heart and the reward for this is in Ps 37:4 AMP “Delight yourself also in the Lord, and He will give you the desires and secret petitions of your heart”
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