Living in Harmony With Others — Morning Devotions

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Transcript

Unless you plan to live on a desert island, you will need to live and interact with others. It’s just a very simple fact of life. We rub shoulders with people all the time and sometimes that’s not so much an enjoyable experience. And no matter how much you love your family, for example, there is going to be some area of conflict, tension, or disagreement. It’s inevitable. And there’s not a great lot you can do about it except be aware and try your best to live at peace with others.

You may struggle to feel in sync with people close to you and with society at large. Living a long and fruitful life is a difficult thing to do when a person can’t coexist with other people in harmony. Living in harmony, it not only helps others, it also helps the person living the harmonious life because we’re social beings, we enjoy being treated well.

Getting along with someone isn’t about being their best friend or sharing all their hobbies or interests. It really is about treating people with respect and care. Do you try and listen, do you listen to what other people are saying, or is it the fact that you drift off sometimes and think of what you’re going to say in response? You’ll be surprised how much people appreciate someone who is really listening without judging or arguing. We’re not very good at that, but it is possible if you work at it.

So what can help us succeed in our relationships?

And here it is, the ability to listen. Your friendship, your marriage, your relationship with those that you care about is built up through the art of listening.

To listen is to love and to strengthen that connection. There are many reasons we’ve got to learn how to get on with others. It was Francis Scott Fitzgerald, the American novelist responsible for novels including The Great Gatsby. He died in 1940, and as his family was cleaning up his office, they discovered papers for a planned novel. And one paragraph said, a widely separated family inherits a house in which they have to live forever.

It’s an interesting thought. Sometimes we have to live together and learn how to get on. And on occasions, good comes out of the bad times…

Two women who were wives of New York’s firefighters who rescued the survivors from the 9/11 attack didn’t speak to one another for years until that terrible tragedy threw them together. And now they are best friends.

The Bible is quite specific about this. I read, for example, in Romans 12:16: Live in harmony with one another. Now our problem is that often we expect others to think like us, but I think that will never work. We come from different backgrounds, experiences. How can we really think exactly the same? As we say sometimes, singing from the same hymn book, it’s not really possible, but we should always aim to live in harmony with each other.

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In order to do that, we must readily adjust ourselves to other people. Not always easy, but I want to say the grace of God is available to help us. Often we don’t take the time to process why these challenges come up in relationships. We’re too quick to judge. Selfishness has no place in healthy relationships, but the harmony we long for will come when we begin to put others above ourselves. It is amazing to meet people who are very unselfish.

What do they do? They put others first.

This could be to do with helping a friend, a partner, or a colleague, and at a wider scale that could include some kind of meaningful charity work. And ultimately their position is not important because they’re always on the lookout to be there for you, for one another, regardless of their own needs.

And this is one of the great characteristics of Jesus. The Bible is filled with many examples teaching us how to handle our relationships. It’s important for us to learn from the best teacher, the Holy Spirit. It is impossible for us to love the Lord, who we cannot see if we do not love those who are with us each day. So continue practising this art of listening. Work at it.

A good relationship with someone that we care for is a treasure, and yet maintaining healthy relationships is not easy.

Let’s Pray

Heavenly Father, it’s not an easy thing to live in harmony with other people, particularly those that we don’t like. I pray that You will help us each day to live in a friendly relationship with others, because I ask it in Jesus’ name. Amen.

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