Senior Pastor’s Devotional
14 July 2020 | Recovery Movement Control Order – “Strategic Psalm 91 Watch”

It is a well-known medical and scientific fact that life without significant relationships is not only meaningless, but very unhealthy.

In his book, The Broken Heart, James Lynch says, “Most of the people I deal with have at the root of their physical problems the problem of loneliness. They may well be living with someone, or indeed in a busy, bustling family atmosphere but they do not know what it is to experience a close relationship. The lonely are twice as likely to suffer physical problems as those who enjoy a warm relationship with at least one other person.”

My mentor, the late Selwyn Hughes wrote, “We come to know ourselves only as we know how to relate effectively to others. A person who is known in a loving, trusting relationship by at least one other human being, is rich indeed and will have little fear about facing the world.”

Hughes also wrote, ”Relationship is built into you by the Creator and is therefore part of a divine design. Only in the context of right relationships can the deepest longings of our being be met and satisfied.”

The reality is that we not only need a right relationship with God but healthy, right relationships with one another. This is why open, trusting, accepting and non-judgmental groups are such a powerful entity at a time when much of life has become technical and impersonal. An effective group, is where people are open and honest, share their struggles and sorrows as well as their joys—and where members listen, love and accept without any kind of judgment, sermonizing, giving advice—or trying to fix people.

We can live successfully without having to be in a romantic relationship, but we cannot live a worthwhile life nor can we grow outside of meaningful relationships.

God has made us as relational beings. We need one another.

Pr Lawrence Yap.