Instructions for Interactions - Be Affectionate, Honor, Be Diligent (Daily Devotional)

Hello and welcome to Living Supernaturally. We're so glad that you could join us today on today's daily devotion. We're going to take some time to look into God's word, to study God's word and see that there are specific instructions in God's word for interpersonal interaction. So, there are instructions for interpersonal interaction and I'm sure that sometimes we have felt the need for wisdom to handle a particular relationship, it could be maybe at home, it could be in our workplace setting, maybe in our place of study to handle the relationship rightly. And so, we have God's word giving us these instructions and one such instruction is in Romans chapter 12, verses 10 and 11 which says, "Be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love, in honor giving preference to one another; not lagging in diligence, fervent in spirit, serving the Lord." So, first part of that, be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. Now we know that to be kindly affectionate means to be tenderhearted and to have that fraternal kindness. Sometimes we think to show forth kindness is a weakness. Sometimes, we are afraid to be kind fearing that we will be manipulated, fearing that there'll be a lack of self-control or we will be controlled by the other person and there are all kinds of fears that we will be taken for granted, that we will not be respected and so on. But we see that kindness is really strength when we establish healthy boundaries. Kindness is not allowing others’ bitterness towards us to change our own goodness or kindness towards others. Kindness is not wanting to please the other person but to show forth that brotherly love anyway. Kindness keeps our hearts clean and keeps our conscience clean. So, the word of God says be kindly affectionate to one another with brotherly love. Brotherly love is a love that does not do any harm to the other person, a love that cherishes. We see this instruction to be affectionate with brotherly love. It also says in honor giving preference to one another which means to esteem the other person, to be honorable to the other person and we see that as the first part. Secondly, we see this instruction in continuation with the first part of the instruction. The second part is not lagging in diligence. As we continue to be kindly affectionate, as we continue to honor the other person, God's word also instructs us, do not lag in diligence. To lag means to be slothful, to be lazy, to be sluggish and so don't be lagging in diligence. Diligence we know is earnestness and intentional effort and so on. So, this will require effort to be affectionate and to show forth this brotherly kindness, love and to be honorable. So, God's word says do not be lagging in diligence. Listen to this, it says fervent in spirit serving the Lord. We see that word ‘fervent’ which means to literally to boil and the picture is that of some liquid or water which is boiling over and that's the picture that we have of fervency. So, in our interaction with people, in our showing forth this brotherly love and kind affection, God's word instructs us to be fervent in spirit. To be fervent in our innermost being, in our spirit, not lagging in diligence, but to show forth this fervency. The word used there, serving the Lord, it means to being a slave in service. So, this is God's instruction for us for interpersonal interaction. So, let's put this to practice today. Let's pray, Father, we thank you for your word. We thank you for the wisdom that's in your word. We thank you that it is possible. Many times, when we read your word, we think, can this be possible? Lord, we thank you because by the empowering of your Holy Spirit, it is possible. So, enable us, empower us to put to practice this word that we read today, in Jesus' name, Amen.

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