THINKONIT NEWS

ThinkOnIt Bible Ministries Inc.

7 Ways to Improve Relationships

Volume 1, Issue 2 July 2012

Inside this issue:

Choosing to See Good Looking at Them as God Sees Them 2 2

Relationships are key to life. In fact, the Bible is full of stories about Gods relationship with His people. Well look at seven ways we can improve our relationships by using Ephesians 1:3 -7 as our guide. This section of Scripture shows us several wonderful things God did for us. This becomes our model to implement in our relationships. Blessed be the God and Father of our Lord Jesus Christ, who has blessed us with every spiritual blessing in the heavenly places in Christ, 4 just as He chose us in Him before the foundation of the world, that we

Treat Them as Family 2 Treat Others 3

should be holy and without blame before Him in love, 5 having predestined us to adoption as sons by Jesus Christ to Himself, according to the good pleasure of His will, 6 to the praise of the glory of His grace, by which He made us accepted in the Beloved. 7 In Him we have redemption through His blood, the forgiveness of sins, according to the riches of His grace Because He did all these for us, we are do these for those we love. By Gods power of His Spirit in me I am able to do all things through Christ who strengthens me.

Words of a friend are health to the bones

Reconciliation is First 4 Priority Forgive as We are Forgiven 5

Sacrifice is Our Exam- 6 ple

Special points of interest:

Suggestions on improving your relationships Living as a disciple of Christ Walking by the Spirit Restoring Relationships Walking as He did

Blessing Others
God blesses us. Though we dont deserve this kind treatment, God still loves us. He demonstrates His love for us by blessing us. He speaks good things over us to encourage us to rise to His glorious standards. We can do the same with our loved ones. Speak blessings over them. Speak words of encouragement and love. Withhold critical, harsh, or unloving words. When was the last time you spoke a blessing over your loved ones? Watch your words and ensure that only wholesome, lifebuilding, encouraging words are spoken. When you do you are speaking blessings to those who hear your words.

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Choosing to See the Good

There is nothing desirable in us that God would have chosen us to be His children. But He chose us just the same. We dont choose what family we are born or adopted into, but there is a way we can choose our loved ones. Choose to love your family.
We can always choose what is right in Gods sight

Choose to forgive. Choose to care. Choose to be near them. Choose to be their biggest fan. Choose to listen to them. Choose to honor them. Choose to follow Gods lead. Choose to pray for one another.

Thank you Lord for choosing us to lavish your love upon. Enable us by your Holy Spirit to lavish love on our loved ones in the same extravagant way you do.

Choose to be kind. Choose to be patience.

Looking at Them as God Sees Them

God speaks good things over us to encourage us to rise to His glorious standards.
Jesus Christ died for our sins. He paid the price for our disobedience. Because He did that, we are covered by His righteousness in Gods eyes. We can stand before God with confidence that all our faults are washed away. God sees only a holy and blameless person instead. Rather than point out flaws in our loved one, we can remember how God sees them, holy and blameless. Love covers a multitude of sins. A wise person overlooks flaws. This doesnt mean we condone the bad behavior but it means we choose to see the person as God doesholy and blameless because of Christ.

Treat Them as Family

Regardless of the type of family we come from, God adopted us in His perfect family when we believed in Jesus. His family remains forever. It will not be affected by death or illness. His family endures forever with a bond of love greater than we can imagine. We are part of this family with a fierce love that cannot be extinguished. Our earthly family benefits by our security. Knowing there is nothing that can stop Gods love for us, we can model the same kind of love for our earthly family. All believers are part of the same family. We are brothers and sisters in Christ.

Fruit of the Spirit is love, joy, peace, patience, goodness, kindness, faithfulness, gentleness and self-control

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Treating Others in Way to Bring Pleasure to Him

If we understand how much God did for us and know it was for the good pleasure of His will, we come to an enlightened state of living. God did all this for us because it gave Him great pleasure. Following Gods will always brings pleasure in the end because He purposes everything for the good of those who love Him and are called according to His purposes. By remembering Gods way is the best way, we yield our responses and reactions to relational conflicts to Him. In so doing, we improve our relationships by following the Holy Spirits lead to humble ourselves before the sight of the Lord. Seek first to understand the other persons point of view. Then offer an encouraging word by knowing God desires relationships and doing what it takes on our part to reconcile the relationship.

By our fruit we will be known

Reconciliation is First Priority

Gods purpose was to redeem a broken, fallen, human race, and to make us alive in Him. God wanted a huge family based on love and free will. Though we choose to do our own thing He chooses to redeem us through Jesus Christ. Redemption by Jesus brings confidence and self worth. God thought we were worth saving. All our relationships are worth saving too! God went to great lengths in saving us. Therefore, we should take great care to save our relationships too! By remembering how God redeemed you, decide to redeem your relationships. Take the necessary action to put things right.

God will never ask you to forgive someone more than He already forgave you!

Forgive as We are Forgiven

We need forgiveness for all that we have done wrong, for all the times we play god with our lives, for all the times we have hurt others, for all the disobedience, selfishness, pride, arrogance, rebellion and stubbornness. God forgives all of that when we come to Jesus. Forgiveness is key to a great relationship for we are all sinners by nature. We all mess up and need forgiveness repeatedly. Because we are forgiven so much we are able to forgive others. A quick trip down memory lane to think about all that God has forgiven us will help us more easily forgive others. We must forgive as God forgave us.
Healthy relationships bear fruit

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Encouraging you with Gods words

We exist to encourage you with Gods words. We do that through Bible devotions, Bible studies, and small group leader tips. We are internet based as it is a very cost effective way to reach many people around the world with the good news of the Bible. We started in 2009 with Bible devotions for our founders small group. Now we offer free Bible devotions over the internet and via email subscriptions. In addition, our inductive Bible studies called Your Discovery Series are now available on Amazon. Our main focus is women in or leading small group Bible studies. We long to equip them to carry out Gods purpose in their lives. If this newsletter has encouraged you, wed love to hear about it. Contact Elizabeth@thinkonit.org

22365 El Toro road #163 Lake Forest, CA 92630 elizabeth@thinkonit.org

For more relationship ideas, study the Book of Ephesians with Discover the Riches of His Grace - Learning to Do Relationships Gods Way

T H I N K O N I T . O RG

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Sacrifice is Our Example

Husbands, love your wives, just as Christ also loved the church and gave Himself for her, Ephesians 5:25 NKJV Heres another powerful example we (or our husbands) are to set for those in our circle of influence. Husbands are to love their wives as Christ loved the church. How did Christ love the Christ? Well, He set aside His deity to become a mear human so He could relate to our struggles. Husbands should relate to their wives with understanding (1 Peter 3:7). Jesus lived among us without sin. He gave His life to pay for our sin. Husbands (& wives) should recognize their own sin and confess it and pray for each other so that they may be healed (James 5:16). He died for us. He emptied Himself on our behalf. Thats a huge sacrifice! This is what husbands are called to do. Thats a huge responsibility. While most husbands are not required to physically die for their wives under normal circumstances, all husbands are required to put aside themselves for the betterment of their wives. Every time they focus on meeting their wives needs instead of their own needs, they are dying to self. Philippians 2:3 says Be humble, thinking of others as better than yourself. Husbands are a picture of Christ to their wives and their families .

Relationships grow when they are watered