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Pleasing people, especially relatives, can stop the

power of God in a Christian's life.

The reason for this is because you've taken the control

of your life away from God and assigned it to people.

This is dangerous.

Our lives as Christians belong solely to God. We are

bought with a price.

Too many times we fear to offend our earthly relatives

at the cost of disobeying God.

Disobedience to God and His plan for our lives bears a

heavy penalty. It kills our witness, we become ineffective,

and it can even shorten our life-span here on earth.

We as believers need to allow Jesus Christ to not only

be our Savior, but the Lord of our lives.

When we choose to let our relatives dictate to us when

we go to church, where we go to church, what job we should

take, how we should raise our children, what is our

responsibility to the parents who "raised" us, etc. we are

allowing them to overstep God given bounds.

The Bible says when a man and woman get married they

are to leave father and mother and the man is to cleave

unto his wife. They become one flesh. This is God's plan for

the Christian family.

If we as Christians are looking to relatives to teach

us how to build a Christian home we will fail. The Bible

states "Unless the Lord build the house, they labor in vain

who build it."

We as Christian parents need to raise our children the

way the Bible says, first and foremost. If our relatives

approve or disapprove should not even be an issue in our

decisions. God's will is our decision maker. There are

times when "Godly" counsel may be needed, but the emphasis

is on "Godly".

These counselors need to be righteous Holy Spirit

Filled believers that God has directed you to for aid

in making a particular decision.

Just because a person is a relative does not qualify

that person to be a "Godly" counselor. God must always have

first position in a Christian's life. This is the only

choice a Christian who wants to hear Jesus say, "Well done ,

thou good and faithful servant." can make.

No matter how much relatives are loved

they can never be allowed to usurp God's position in a

Christian's life. To do so, is to set the relatives up as an

idol. This will bring disaster to a believer's life and to

the relative's life. When we decide as a Christian to submit

to the Lordship of Christ, no matter what, there will be

times when our relatives will not like it. Those who we

thought loved us may even persecute us and become our

enemies for a time.

We need to realize that Jesus' relatives acted

the same way toward Him. Jesus said if they persecuted Him,

they will do the same to us. When persecution happens we as

believers don't need to get offended. During "relative"

problems we need to keep our focus totally on God.

We are not to get caught up in arguments trying to defend

our position in God. God will defend His own position. We

are to simply go ahead about what God has called us to do

and leave our relatives in God's hand. 

We are to stay in the Word daily and pray for those who

"despitefully use us and persecute us". When we are obedient

to God our relatives cannot put guilt, frustration, anger,

or anything on us. It won't phase us because God is

protecting us and keeping us free from it. We will know His

peace that passes all understanding. We will walk in God's

Presence and see His victory in our lives. There will be no

bitterness, no anger, just His love in our lives that will

enable us to forgive those that hurt us.

We will finish the race set before us,

 for our relatives will be in their proper place,

and God will be first and His will foremost in our lives.