Do you have a Crush?
We all remember our first crush...
We all remember our first crush. That special someone that had captured our heart and, at least for 3rd grade, held the world in their hands.
We (hopefully) know that a crush is not the same as real life or healthy relationships.
Many people keep crushing their relationships by putting the weight of the world on them–their hearts are captured and their world is in that persons hands.
They are headed for pain.
Unrealistic expectations crush relationships until unmet expectations destroy relationships.
This is a reason why our prayer life is crucial to your relationships.
If we don’t see people accurately, we will treat them destructively.
Every person you are in a relationship with is made in the image of God. God made mankind in His own image and according to His likeness.
Each human was created by God with some of God’s capacity and character to represent Him. We represent the infinite God on finite scale. He is over all, and we place our two feet in one place to represent Him.
Forgetting our place leads to destroyed relationships (a symptom of sin).
This is vivid in marriages and in many other close relationships.
We begin to worship someone we love. They deserve respect, but not worship. When we deify them instead of dignifying them, we begin to place the wait of the world on their shoulders.
Inevitably they will not be able to stand under this pressure. If we’d only treated them as another finite image bearer, we could restrain from casting our hopes, dreams, and lives on them… and crushing them in the process.
Often those who fail us fall in our hearts (even for a moment) out of heaven and into hell, so to speak. When they fail as God, we make them a demon. They ought to be humble, but we reach for humiliation for those who fail us.
Our misplaced worship leads to tearing down the idols that fail us.
What if our misplaced expectations (worship) were the problem all along?
In prayer we lean on the Everlasting Arms. We depend on the Rock who will never fall. We place our hopes on the sure promises of God in Christ.
When we pray–people are free to be vessels of God’s mercy, strength, and promise keeping without the weight of being idols.
When people fail us, we can turn to God and find strength to respond to them in their need. Our lives are not in a tailspin. Our hearts do not need to rage or tear them down further.
We can prayerfully be a vessel in God’s hands to them as the moment needs. Words for repentance, mercy, encouragement, or instruction are not given to idols. We trample idols. Through prayer we can minister to other broken vessels.
Are any of your broken or strained relationships telling you something about the weight you place on others that can only be placed on God?1
Christian, leave behind the elementary crush. As you cast your cares on the Lord you can communicate the Lord’s care to others!
There are certainly ways that relationships break against someone’s desire and even when they have loved admirably.