Living for the Kingdom in our relationships

If you think about it, our faith isn't really a private thing, is it? It’s meant to spill out of our hearts and into our relationships. It's easy to talk about loving God when we're alone, but the real test often comes when we have to deal with, well, people! Our relationships are where the rubber meets the road, where our faith becomes visible.

When we talk about Kingdom living, we're really talking about loving people the way God loves us. This means it means extending grace and forgiveness, seeking reconciliation, and demonstrating love and compassion to family, friends, and even enemies.

That sounds beautiful, but let’s be honest, it can be incredibly hard.

For me, the starting point is grace and forgiveness. Think about the grace God has shown you. The second chances, the clean slates, the undeserved kindness. Kingdom living is about taking that amazing gift and passing it on to others. It’s choosing to forgive your spouse or friend when they’ve hurt you, not because they deserve it, but because you know the freedom of being forgiven yourself. It's letting go of the need to be right and choosing the relationship instead.

Then there’s seeking reconciliation. This one takes courage. Forgiveness can sometimes happen quietly in our own hearts, but reconciliation is about actively trying to mend what's broken. It's picking up the phone, sending that text, or saying, "Can we talk?" even when your pride is screaming at you not to. It’s God's heart to see things made whole again, and He invites us to be a part of that healing work in our own families and friendships.

And maybe the toughest part of all is showing love and compassion to everyone, including those who are hard to love or who have positioned themselves as our enemies. This is so different from the world's way of thinking. It doesn't mean we have to feel warm and fuzzy about them. It means we choose to pray for their well-being. It means we refuse to speak evil of them. It means we act with honor and kindness even when they don't. This is perhaps the most powerful way we can show a watching world what God's radical, unconditional love truly looks like.

This isn’t about being a perfect person or a doormat. It’s simply about letting the incredible love God has poured into you flow through you to others. It’s messy, it’s a journey, but every small act of grace and forgiveness is a beautiful reflection of His Kingdom here on earth.

To help you on this journey, we have created a collection of booklets designed to explore these very topics on a personal level. These can be found in the Resources section of the site.

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