Week 16 “Live in Harmony with One Another”
Day 2
Pray:
Ask God to reorient you to Himself. Confess any known sin. Thank Him for His forgiveness. Be still and reflect on Jesus and His sacrifice for you. Ask the Holy Spirit to open your heart and mind to God’s Word. Pray for others in your life that they, too, would know and love God today.
Read:
Rom. 12:9 Love must be sincere. Hate what is evil; cling to what is good. 10 Be devoted to one another in brotherly love. Honor one another above yourselves. 11 Never be lacking in zeal, but keep your spiritual fervor, serving the Lord. 12 Be joyful in hope, patient in affliction, faithful in prayer. 13 Share with God’s people who are in need. Practice hospitality. 14 Bless those who persecute you; bless and do not curse. 15 Rejoice with those who rejoice; mourn with those who mourn. 16 Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited.
Reflect:
Notice the repetition of “one another” in the passage you just read. One another simply means each other. It is how Philippians 2:4 happens in practice, “Each of you should look not only to your own interests, but also to the interests of others.” If each one is looking to the interests of the other, there is going to be harmony with one another. If each one is looking first to what is best for themselves, there can be no harmony. What happens when one is looking to the interests of the other, but the other is not reciprocating? What if you are in a family or friend relationship where you cannot find harmony because it seems that much or all of what you try to do is misunderstood or rejected? You must control what you can control and leave the rest with God. It takes two people to live in harmony, but it only takes one to live in faithfulness. Will you trust God in this difficult relationship? This is the kind of situation where faith is tested by the fires of real life. Few things can be as difficult as having a broken or strained relationship and knowing you cannot do anything to change the other’s perception. What can you do then? You can be faithful. You can do your half of the “one another.” You can make whatever appropriate choices you have in order to live in harmony with the other, even if they do not make those same choices. This is enormously challenging and it does not guarantee that everything will work out between you in the end. The other person may not respond well, no matter what good choices you make. But if faithfulness is your goal, in the end you will be whole. Broken relationships can be heartbreaking, but faithfulness to what God has called you to will, in the end, lead to a “whole heart.” “Let love and faithfulness never leave you; bind them around your neck, write them on the tablet of your heart” (Pr. 3:3).
Pray:
(Personalize this prayer today; make it specific to the circumstances that face you.)
Ask God to lead you through His Spirit as you go through your day. Ask Him to bring to mind the truth of the gospel and its implications for what you will encounter today. Tell Him “Yes” to His will and ask Him for His power and protection to live this “yes.” Ask God to create and reveal opportunities to proclaim the good news today.