To summarize our last lesson, we must make every effort to develop the different attributes of 1 Peter Chapter 1 to develop agape love in our hearts so it becomes the main part of our character. Then according to the foundation building blocks of unity we must make every effort to build relationships and trust out of this love. I have put relationship and trust together as we cannot really have one without the other in a full practical sense.
People have told me to have trust we must build relationships first. We have to be careful that we are not saying that without relationship there can be no trust. I believe we could all say that we have had relationships and then found out that we couldn’t trust the relationship for various reasons. I have found that there is a lot of mistrust in the Body of Christ because of this. People have been hurt and are extra careful about building relationships. Many times I have found that I have had to prove myself to people to gain any level of trust at all.
Mistrust can come out of our own rejection (past hurts). We may be trying to protect our own hearts or our ministry or our theology. We may have built spiritual walls to protect ourselves. These walls can cause us to have negative attitudes which do not help facilitate relationships. Mistrust can also come out of our own pride. We think we have more revelation, know God better, or our way is best etc. but if we know God better we should have more love. I believe we all have these problems in our hearts to some degree, but if they are still too strong to have any trust at all then it is because we haven’t loved our way through enough situations to be free of these heart problems.
When Jesus said “love your neighbor as yourself” He did not add “if you trust or agree with him” or any other condition. The principle of love includes your enemies or those that would hurt you. Love is the only thing that will heal and keep our heart strong and release the past hurts from stopping unity.
What I am trying to say is that we must have a certain degree of trust first so that the relationship can have a chance to develop. Is the relationship built on trust or is the trust developed because of the relationship? In actuality both are true. They grow out of each other and develop each other and only love keeps them both in proper perspective and keeps everyone protected and safe.
I believe we should be mature enough to at least give people the benefit of the doubt especially if we don’t know them or have any previous experience with them. If we get abused in any way then we should forgive and pray for them (heal our hearts and keep our hearts right) and give them time to grow. The same as we would want people to do for us. In this way we become stronger and more mature for the true unity our Lord wants.
This is a process for me and I don’t always do it well, but I keep making every effort and am getting better at it. This is why I call it Heart unity. Mistakes are part of the process. If we continue to trust (in wisdom and balance with relationship), forgive, and pray for one another then we will together grow into this unity that the Lord wants.
Remember that is where the Lord commands His blessing. Psalm 133
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