{"id":11313,"date":"2021-11-08T10:00:12","date_gmt":"2021-11-08T17:00:12","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/uncategorized\/relationship-over-rules\/"},"modified":"2022-08-30T11:57:52","modified_gmt":"2022-08-30T18:57:52","slug":"relationship-over-rules","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/daily-devotions\/relationship-over-rules\/","title":{"rendered":"Relationship Over Rules","gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"text"}]},"content":{"rendered":"

James 4:7 \u2013 Submit yourselves therefore to God.\u00a0Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.\u00a0<\/em><\/p>\n

When our kids were little, before several of them were taller than I am, I used to squat down to look them in the eye when I\u2019d give them a command to do or not do something. I would start by asking them a few questions like \u201cWho am I?\u201d They\u2019d say, \u201cYou\u2019re my dad.\u201d Then I\u2019d say, \u201cHow do I feel about you?\u201d and they\u2019d answer, \u201cYou love me with your whole heart.\u201d With one of my sons, I\u2019d ask him, \u201cOut of everyone on planet earth, who\u2019s first in line that wants good for you?\u201d and he\u2019d say, \u201cYou do, dad.\u201d<\/p>\n

After that, I\u2019d say \u201cSo I\u2019m going to tell you to do something, and I need you to do it.\u201d I believe in \u201cconnect before you correct\u201d and I wanted the relationship to come before the command.<\/p>\n

When Jesus Christ comes to the earth, it\u2019s the Father\u2019s way of looking you in the eye and saying, \u201cI love you and I\u2019m here for you, but you\u2019re putting yourself in harm\u2019s way through sin, folly, and rebellion. I\u2019m going to tell you to do some things because otherwise you\u2019re going to hurt yourself, but I love you too much to let you self-destruct.\u201d<\/p>\n

When you know the Father\u2019s love for you, you start to hear His commands for your differently. It\u2019s not a Father who\u2019s seeking to restrict you, He\u2019s speaking to save you and preserve you. I\u2019ve learned that the good things in life were God and the bad things in my life were me. The ways I\u2019ve hurt myself were when I didn\u2019t submit to God and acted out of my own foolishness.<\/p>\n

We\u2019re all going to live under some authority. Why do you think you\u2019re a better authority than God?<\/p>\n

Do you truly feel that God is your Father who wants the best for you? If not, ask Him to comfort and change your heart to see His loving heart for you. <\/em><\/p>\n

To get daily devos sent texted to you Monday-Friday, text DEVOTIONS to 99383. Click here to find the study guide<\/a> and sermon series<\/a> that accompanies this devotional series.<\/strong><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

James 4:7 \u2013 Submit yourselves therefore to God.\u00a0Resist the devil, and he will flee from you.\u00a0 When our kids were little, before several of them were taller than I am, I used to squat down to look them in the eye when I\u2019d give them a command to do or not do something. I would … Read more<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false,"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"rendered","format":"html"}]},"author":6,"featured_media":9058,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_eb_attr":"","om_disable_all_campaigns":false,"_relevanssi_hide_post":"","_relevanssi_hide_content":"","_relevanssi_pin_for_all":"","_relevanssi_pin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_unpin_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_keywords":"","_relevanssi_related_include_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_exclude_ids":"","_relevanssi_related_no_append":"","_relevanssi_related_not_related":"","_relevanssi_related_posts":"","_relevanssi_noindex_reason":"","footnotes":""},"categories":[349],"tags":[],"ministries":[],"topics":[258,249],"series":[373],"gt_translate_keys":[{"key":"link","format":"url"}],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11313"}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/6"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=11313"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11313\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":11738,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/11313\/revisions\/11738"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/9058"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=11313"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=11313"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=11313"},{"taxonomy":"ministries","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/ministries?post=11313"},{"taxonomy":"topics","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/topics?post=11313"},{"taxonomy":"series","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/realfaith.com\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/series?post=11313"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}