As Christians reflect on the connection between worship and reconciliation, we invite your voice in Crosswalk Forums. #SpiritualGrowth#ChristlikeLove#christianforums#crosswalkforums#forums#crosswalk#faithcommunity#faithforums
It’s easy to sing songs on Sunday while carrying silent grudges in our hearts. We tell ourselves worship is between us and God—but Jesus flips that script. Before you lift your hands, He says, go reconcile with your brother. Why? Because real intimacy with Christ doesn’t bypass brokenness—it confronts it with grace.
Jesus isn’t asking for perfect relationships. He’s calling for hearts soft enough to pursue peace, even when it’s hard. That may mean admitting your own part in the mess. It may mean forgiving someone who won’t say sorry. But it always starts with a willingness to value people the way God values them.
“We experience the most peace in our souls and relationships when we learn to deal with our emotions before we begin to devalue the other person.”
Read the full devotional that inspired this thread:
Is there someone you need to forgive—or ask forgiveness from?
Has unreleased anger ever dulled your worship or prayer life?
In the beatitudes, Jesus said ’ If while standing at the alter to offer a sacrifice, you realise you’ve had a falling out with your brother, Stop, leave your sacrifice and go sort out your relationship with your brother, ’
My paraphrase.
But it points out if we hold a grudge, have had words and are not speaking to, if we are taking out court orders against a fellow christian, etc we should stop and take steps to right that relationship.
We don’t have to like every Christian, but we do have to show love, real love to them.
Lets be practical, as Chesterton said, " Whats wrong with the world? "
" I am. "
The fault is just as likely to be yours as the other party.
But what about when one cannot resolve a dispute.
Then we take it to God, for serious misdemeanours church leaders would be needed, but ordinary fallings out, if you can’t resolve it tell God about it and pray for the other parties regularljy and seriously.
@Who-me. The beauties are not laws we try and follow, they are who we become when God has entered into being our own disposition that of Love that God is. The Holy Spirit simply is Love and either one houses that disposition of, or one only reads the laws of and tries to follow, and the guarantee in in only trying is that you will fail miserably every time least you have the pure mind of Love that cancels out all biased opinions of anther.
We do not passively await the action of the Spiri5t, but we should be actively seeking to be influenced and changed by him.
That involves working at being obedient, working at understanding the bible, at working at learning theology, apologetics, church history etc etc so that the Spirit has the information already in our minds and can use it to kick start the changes we need to make.
I believe so, yes. But as we draw closer to Christ we will be moved to release that bitterness. That is simply how the Holy Spirit works. The Holy Spirit purifies, focussing our attention to the areas we need to heal and mend.
When I graduated college, I had a group of friends who were no shows. After the fact they made excuses. And I discoverrd that the real reason they did not show was because I wanted to celebrate my graduation by grabbing an alcoholic beverage, which I had agreed with the University not to do until I graduated. But my friends had issues with the drinking that I was unaware of.
I was hurt and resented it. It would have been better if they had just been honest. I avoided them for a few months after that. Until the day we crossed paths for the funeral of a mutuaral aquaintance. He was a devout man whose dying wish was that his loved ones would reconcile and heal any rifts between them, as was expressed by his brother.
What followed was an amazing experience of reconciliation. I felt this feeling of peace that washed away any resentment that I had carried. My friends fellt it too. We mended fences that day.
