The way I read that passage, God is so good, so pure, so loving, so perfect, that there is nothing in this life that can compare to him. He doesn't want us to go around despising the life he gave us: it's a gift we should treasure. Nor does he want us to reject the people He has put in our lives: He says whatsoever we do for the least of these, we have done for Him. Clearly, we are called to love and serve our fellow man.
But everything must be in its proper place. God alone is to be worshiped and obeyed. When His will conflicts with a relationship we have on earth, we must put God first. I personally don't think that means that we always reject the relationship, but rather that our comfort and our hope is in God, and that we don't rely on others to fill us with the love we need from Him.
That being said, I struggle with this SO MUCH. It is very very difficult for me to put God above my marriage because I depend on Dan's love. I have all sorts of Daddy issues, as you know, and I really think that there has been a hole in my heart that Dan filled, and I can't imagine being without that love to form me as a person. The idea that I should rely entirely on God just doesn't mesh with the reality of what I need in life. If I didn't have Dan...I just would not be happy.
So I struggle. I feel very immature in my faith in this respect as well. I don't want to fall apart whenever we have a fight. I want to rely on God's love as my anchor and not on this fleeting, imperfect and worldly relationship. Yet I know in my heart that it's Dan who fills me, and when he isn't doing enough to make me feel loved, I lose all my sense of self-worth.
It's very tough to be a Christian. At the core, I think, has to be a sense that this life and this world is not what really matters. In heaven all our earthly bonds will be gone, and we will simply be souls in the presence of Christ. If that's not what we want...if we want our relationships with other people more than we want God, then we can't truly experience heaven. I see that passage as more of a mindset than a lifestyle. I mean, while we're on earth, it's all about our relationships isn't it? That's the human condition: relating to other humans and caring for the Earth and its creatures.
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But everything must be in its proper place. God alone is to be worshiped and obeyed. When His will conflicts with a relationship we have on earth, we must put God first. I personally don't think that means that we always reject the relationship, but rather that our comfort and our hope is in God, and that we don't rely on others to fill us with the love we need from Him.
That being said, I struggle with this SO MUCH. It is very very difficult for me to put God above my marriage because I depend on Dan's love. I have all sorts of Daddy issues, as you know, and I really think that there has been a hole in my heart that Dan filled, and I can't imagine being without that love to form me as a person. The idea that I should rely entirely on God just doesn't mesh with the reality of what I need in life. If I didn't have Dan...I just would not be happy.
So I struggle. I feel very immature in my faith in this respect as well. I don't want to fall apart whenever we have a fight. I want to rely on God's love as my anchor and not on this fleeting, imperfect and worldly relationship. Yet I know in my heart that it's Dan who fills me, and when he isn't doing enough to make me feel loved, I lose all my sense of self-worth.
It's very tough to be a Christian. At the core, I think, has to be a sense that this life and this world is not what really matters. In heaven all our earthly bonds will be gone, and we will simply be souls in the presence of Christ. If that's not what we want...if we want our relationships with other people more than we want God, then we can't truly experience heaven. I see that passage as more of a mindset than a lifestyle. I mean, while we're on earth, it's all about our relationships isn't it? That's the human condition: relating to other humans and caring for the Earth and its creatures.