It’s time to perform a relationship evaluation in your life!

Before Jesus performed the miracle of raising Jarius’ daughter from the dead (Luke 8:51-56), he evaluated the people in the house to determine who would stay and who would be put out (see sermon: Put them out and let Jesus in). The people that were told to leave were not on one accord with Jesus because they laughed at him, were disruptive (made noise, Matthew 9:23), and doubted what he was about to do. Jesus removed all the distractions that would discourage the parents, damper their hope, and hinder the Father from being glorified.  In like manner, Peter, who was with Jesus in the house (Luke 8:51), learned from that experience and performed a similar evaluation in Acts 9:40 when God used him to raise Tabitha from the dead. Before God can resurrect the things that are “dead” in your life (i.e., your desire to seek him, your hunger for his Word, devoting time in prayer, etc.), you must examine your life to see what is hindering God from entering in to help you. Thus, it is imperative to perform a relationship evaluation in your life to determine who stays and who gets put out of your “house.” Your spiritual health is depending on it!

According to Matthew 22:37, your relationship with Jesus Christ must be the most important relationship that you possess. However, the secondary relationships in your life can have either a positive or negative impact on your relationship with God. Whether intentional or unintentional, unhealthy relationships can have a negative influence on how you feel and can work contrary to you making advancements toward a better relationship with God. These types of relationships are considered unhealthy or toxic and must be evaluated to determine if the significance, worth, or quality of these relationships are worth investing in. How can you recognize if you are in a “toxic” relationship? Here are a few warning signs that will help you determine which relationship is worth keeping and which one is doing more harm than good:

1. When you talk to this individual, you feel exhausted, emotionally drained, or depressed after the conversation.
2. When you talk to this individual, the conversation is mainly one-sided. All about them!
3. When you talk to this individual, their conversation brings your energy down more than lifts you up.
4. The individual takes and asks from you more than they give.
5. The individual always needs your help, but when it’s time to depend on them they are unavailable.
6. The individual expects you to drop everything to help clean up a mess they could have avoided by making wiser decisions.
7. They discourage you or criticize you for seeking anything that has to do with God such as prayer, going to worship service, etc.
8. They often bring up your past failures or mistakes and show little to no interest in your current endeavors or successes.

Your spiritual health must be guarded, preserved, maintained, and treated with the utmost importance; because it has a direct impact on your mental health and physical health. God wants to reveal himself to you in a way that you haven’t experienced before, so you must “put out” everything in your life that can hinder you from receiving the full blessings and manifestation of God in your life.