That which is desirable in a man is his loyalty and unfailing love, But it is better to be a poor man than a [wealthy] liar. (Proverbs 19:22, Amplified Bible)
Broken relationships is one of the major things we have seen and had to deal with over 34 years of ministry. Divorce is usually always associated with marriage but it’s not exclusive to marriage. That same “spirit of divorce” can apply to business, family, or just friends as well. In the Book of Malachi God said this about divorce, “For I hate divorce!” says the Lord, the God of Israel “ (NLT). In some translations it says “putting away or sending away” versus divorce. The Hebrew word used here is shalach which means to forsake, cast out or cast away.
If you read Chapter 2 of Malachi you will see that initially God was referring to Judah not being faithful to Him and then He ended up talking about marriage. That is not surprising because God is very big on covenant relationships. That is why He was so upset with Judah for forsaking their vows with Him. When He says He will never leave us or forsake us, He means it! When we are faithless, He is faithful!
We need to look at God’s character and try to be of that same character and not the character of the world. Here are five keys that will help you in any type of relationship:
Be loyal – We live in a time where loyalty has almost become a thing of the past. People will put greed, promotion, and gain before loyalty to a relationship and think nothing about it. They will run at the drop of a hat and not blink an eye. This is serious business with God. He is loyal to us so we should be loyal to one another except for aggravating circumstances such as illegal activities and abuse.
Communicate – A key reason for the failure of many relationships is poor communications. The lack of communication will always result in vain imaginations. He’s thinking this, or I bet she must have done that. Isolation always breeds deception. Open and honest communications clears the air and is an enemy to vain imaginations.
No secrets – The foundation of a good relationship is openness and truth. God never lies to us. His Word is settled in Heaven forever as the truth. We have heard every excuse in the book over the years about why secrets are necessary. None of them were satisfactory.
Unity – You are more powerful and less likely to go astray if you are in unity. Disunity brings about all kind of bad results like strife, arguing, and blame. Two are always better than one and it multiplies in power from there. For example, an entire army in unity is mighty powerful.
Honor differences – Many marriages break apart because of their differences rather than using those differences to their advantage. Some marriages spend a life time competing with each other versus completing each other. God made you one flesh, together! In the area where one is weak, the other is strong.
God is into long term relationships that are full of loyalty, openness, truth, unity, peace and prosperity. That is His desire for all of our relationships. We would all be wise to follow His example.
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