Who's In Your Circle?

Place a hula-hoop down at your feet, step in it and consider those you would allow in that circle.  When you look at it, it is a very small circle.  So maybe you would say your spouse. Your children, maybe even your parents because that is such an intimate space.
 
Now widen it.  Who would you allow in that circle? Friends, certain co-workers, family members you feel close with.  Now put some distance between you and this next group.  This is going to be your biggest circle, with the most distance.  Let’s talk real feelings and emotions, who would you place here?
 
That person that talks a lot and you just can’t get away from.  That person you feel gossips a lot and tells all your business.  How about those family members you do not get along with but must have a relationship because they are family?  Those co-workers that you don’t see eye to eye with.  It’s obvious that this circle is for all of those you do not care to socialize with even if you must maintain some kind of relationship with them.
 
Think really hard about your circles.  Then think even harder about the command you were given as a Christian. Mark 12:30-31 “Love the Lord your God with all your heart, with all your soul, with all your mind, and with all your strength. The second is, Love your neighbor as yourself. There is no other command greater than these.” ~CSB
 
When you refer to this text in Mark, this sets you up for your spiritual cleansing.  You see it’s not about you or how you feel about a person, it is about your purpose and that person’s purpose.  One may need the other to get the ‘kick-start’ they need to live in that purpose. If you deny a relationship with someone, regardless of how you feel about them, you are denying another of God’s children to be seeded by Him through you.  And God will do this seeding through the love you have for that person.  Therefore “…loving your neighbor…” is a command because it is a conduit for the Lord to work His miracle.
 
The next Word from the Lord to help us as we ponder our circles, is found in Matthew 28:19, “Go, therefore, and make disciples of all nations…”  In a way that only God can do, allow Him to teach, train and bring awareness of His great power in miracles through the testimony of what He has done for us. Our testimony about God in our lives mixed with God’s gospel is the foundation of your purpose for the kingdom.
 
That person we are trying to avoid because they talk too much, may have a blessing hidden in their words for our direction.  That family member we wrote off may need God to reveal Himself through the love He created in us to give them so that they can become aware of the purpose that is inside them.  
 
In other words, God did not give us the authority to decide who we place in those circles that we have created. It is God who decides who crosses our paths.  And those paths are crossed for God to do a good work in us as well as those we encounter in our lives. We may not like the situations. But do not let those situations keep you from being a witness to the victory at the end of those encounters because this is how God shows the non-believing world He exists.  And He choses to use you and I to do that. What an honor!
 
May God bless and keep you as you continue your journey in Jesus’ name,
Amen

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