Knowing yourself, as you know God.
As you are secure in your identity and love, and as you produce the fruit of self-control in your life, communication suddenly becomes something that is a lot easier and more fun!
A person secure in their identity does not rise up and attack when something comes against them that is counter to their world-view. From personal experience, when I am not secure in the love of God, I get offended very easily. Because suddenly I have to look out for me. I have to protect myself, I have to exert control around me, because I have no security inside. And when the environment around me is in turmoil I feel as if I have to control it and manipulate it so that there is peace.
The problem with this as you can see is that when we are manipulating our environment and those around us, we are doing incredible damage to their lives. When you get two people like this together, then the fireworks start to show because it becomes a battle to see who will exert their power and produce the environment that they want.
Before we can begin to have Godly relationships with others, we must first have a peace about who we are.
If we are feeling insecure, we will either fight to make others feel that way to make us feel better, or we will fold up and submit to the other person letting them control us.
Either option is not healthy, obviously, but how do we break this cycle?
We need to understand our identity, and who we are in Christ. We need to be secure in the Father's love. If we know that our God loves us... what other people say or do no longer has the power to take control over us.
We can then enter into any interaction with others, not having to prove our point to show them that we are right. We do not have to control an environment in order to validate our set of ideals and world-view. We are comfortable with people disagreeing with us because it does not define our worth if people don't agree with me.
This is challenging stuff, but I hope that it makes you think! As I said in a previous post, don't be afraid of conviction from God, instead embrace it and let it bring you to a place of humility and love with God.
Love you all!
Daniel