Ready to Receive or Release

Therefore encourage one another and build each other up, just as in fact you are doing. I Thessalonians 5:11 (New International Version)

I just spent a lovely evening with a friend and her family. After an elementary school Christmas program we headed for some pizza. My soul basked in the warmth of their laughter, love, and life! It is hard for me to believe that our friendship has grown and developed in just a few short months. It has been needed and it has been enjoyed!

There have been a handful of women whom God has introduced me to in this past year that came at a time when it seemed other friendships were going through some changes. At first, the changes concerned me and I started wondering what had gone wrong and what I had done to “drive” them away. Just when I thought I had become a “relational leper” God enlightened me to something I hadn’t considered. The friendships were still in tact. If I saw them or spoke with them we would enjoy ourselves. So what was different? God’s answer was this: they are no longer primary encouragers to you or you to them. And that’s okay because I have other relationships for all of you. When I embraced that truth everything changed!

God’s intent is that I enjoy the friends He brings into my life with open hands. Releasing them must be done as freely as receiving them. For it is only in releasing them that I am able to then receive others. God has purposes for the ones He brings into my life. We have the opportunity to enrich each other’s life within the time frame God has determined. He will know when it is time for me to interact with new people. Frequency will no longer mark our conversations but the friendship will continue in a new way.

This has been freeing for me. It has helped me take my expectations off people and enjoy them for who they are. It has also helped me to delight in the times we do share. Not hearing from them no longer becomes a time to doubt, condemn, or blame myself or them. I am now free to trust God to intersect my world with others in His time!

I have no idea how many more people I have yet to meet. God keeps surprising me like He did this past summer! I lift up thanks to Him for past encouragers as well as present ones. It is one area of need He continually supplies and He does it to perfection. It doesn’t have to be a thing of confusion or pain any longer. I am free to embrace the body of Christ as it was meant to be embraced. I now treasure the past, enjoy the present, and anticipate the future.

Father, I never liked change but have finally begun to see the preciousness of it! Thank you for each person who has touched my life in beautiful ways. I await the ultimate reunion in Heaven! Amen.