RELATIONSHIP TIP

There is a common fallacy that says: “The more time you spend with someone or the longer you’re around them, the better you know them.”

Nothing could be further from the truth.

While proximity can bring people closer, it often breeds familiarity, and familiarity has a dangerous way of distorting perception, especially when you have lived, worked, or served alongside someone for many years.

This even happened to Jesus.

When He returned to His hometown of Nazareth, the Bible says that He couldn’t do any miracles or mighty works there except for healing a few sick people.

How could that be? Just a few chapters earlier, Jesus had:

• Raised a young girl from the dead

• Healed a woman who had been bleeding non-stop for 12 years

• Calmed a violent storm on the sea that threatened their safety while traveling

• Cast out over 12,000 demons from two men.

• Healed two blind men

• Cast a “mute” demon out of a man

After performing all those miracles, why was His power now rendered impotent?

The answer? FAMILIARITY

The people in Jesus’ hometown thought they knew Him. They had watched Him grow up. They knew His relatives. They were familiar with the kind of work that He did. They were even familiar with the story of how He was conceived. He was Mary & Joseph’s boy…the carpenter’s kid. They thought they knew Him and His family because of the closeness of the tight-knit Jewish community, but they didn’t.

They said this about Him:

● Where did this man get these things?

● Is this not the carpenter, the Son of Mary?

● Is he not the brother of James, Joses, Judas, and Simon?

● Are his sisters not here with us?

They thought to themselves, “Who does He think that He is trying to teach us?”

Their “closeness” caused them to be blind to the reality of who He actually was and not who they thought He was. Their proximity to Him and His family bred familiarity, and their familiarity warped their view of Jesus. Because of it, they (and their city) missed out on the miracles that God wanted to do among them.

Here is the truth:

Revelation, not proximity, is the key that unlocks real relationships.

Twelve men walked with Jesus daily for three years. One day, Jesus asked them, “Who do people say that I am?”

They gave various answers, but only one person out of the twelve got the answer right.

Peter turns to Jesus and says, “You are the Messiah, the Son of the living God.”

Jesus responds by saying, “Flesh and blood did not reveal this to you Peter; only my Father in heaven could have revealed this to you.”

Despite being with Him every day, only one of the twelve saw Him clearly. How was this possible? They ministered alongside him, served people alongside Him, ate with Him, traveled with Him, and worked with Him. How did they not know who He was?

It is simple: Because true relationship is experienced through revelation, not proximity. The more you become aware of who is in your midst and the inherent value that they bring to the relationship, you desire to be as close as possible to them. You also never take them for granted.

Do not let proximity distort your perception. Sometimes, the greatest revelations require a fresh perspective.

#RelationshipTips #FaithAndLife #FamiliarityBreedsContempt #JesusInNazareth #TheRemarkableLife #Mark6 #PerspectiveShift #ChristianLiving #CheckYourHeart

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