God has instilled in each person the need for relationships. We need God to be in a right relationship with people.  Our relationship with God is the most important relationship we can have. It is the foundation for all healthy relationships. It is built on communication with God.

But God has also created us to have relationships with one another. We need people. God created us that way. If we don’t believe that, we are denying how our Creator designed us. God created us to be connected to one another.

Remember what God said in Genesis 2:18: “The Lord God said, “It is not good for the man to be alone. I will make a helper suitable for him.”

The Bible refers to Christ’s followers as “the body of Christ”. Our human bodies provide a wonderful word picture of the body of Christ. Consider what happens in the human body when the brain ceases to communicate properly with the rest of the person’s body, such as when a person has a stroke. The person doesn’t act in a “normal” manner. A person’s arms, legs or mouth may cease to work properly because communication from the brain is improper. 

Similarly, when the body of Christ, aka God’s people, fail to properly communicate with Jesus and with one another, the body of believers suffers from the breakdown in communication. 

Just as poor communication is detrimental to the human body’s good health, improper communication with God and one another results in the breakdown of the body of Christ.

Consider the Apostle Paul’s words in 1 Corinthians 12:12-13 [The Living Bible]: “Our bodies have many parts, but the many parts make up only one body when they are all put together. So it is with the “body” of Christ. Each of us is a part of the one body of Christ. Some of us are Jews, some are Gentiles, some are slaves, and some are free. But the Holy Spirit has fitted us all together into one body. We have been baptized into Christ’s body by the one Spirit, and have all been given that same Holy Spirit.”

As people who form the body of Christ, we need to communicate with one another for healthy and effective relationships. That is what God has designed, and it is good.

Poor communication often leads people to make conclusions not based on fact. 

Poor communication can cause people to feel excluded. 

Poor communication can often lead to misunderstandings.

Poor communication may lead to division.

Poor communication may cause hurt that might cause people to leave a church.

But God can enable us to communicate with each other, when we ask Him for help, and humble ourselves and rely upon Him. 

God can bring healing, when people are willing to talk with each other, and open to hearing another opinion.

Words are important, after all, God spoke and our world was “equipped” with the sun, moon, stars. He spoke, and plants and animals came into existence. [See Genesis 1-2 for specific details.] 

Words are powerful. They can build people up, or they can break down relationships. The lack of words can be powerful in the same way, because unspoken words leave people with creating their own scenarios, which can be detrimental to relationships. 

Consider the following verses regarding words, and consider how these verses apply to good or poor communication:

Proverbs 11:9: “With their mouths the godless destroy their neighbors, but through knowledge the righteous escape.

Proverbs 15:4: “The soothing tongue is a tree of life, but a perverse tongue crushes the spirit.”

Proverbs 18:21: “The tongue has the power of life and death, and those who love it will eat its fruit.

Ephesians 4:29: “Let no corrupting talk come out of your mouths, but only such as is good for building up, as fits the occasion, that it may give grace to those who hear.”

Good communication includes the use of words, tone, and timing. 

Good communication can powerfully influence a relationship.

Good communication is work, but it is worth the effort.

It takes time to be a good communicator. I’ve often found that God calls me to be an initiator in communications in my relationships. Sometimes it might be a short text, an email, or even a telephone call. I’ve been blessed many times because I took the time to initiate contact.

Have you ever had someone say to you something to the effect that they haven’t heard from you in a while? I often wonder when I hear that, why didn’t that person reach out and call? We wouldn’t say that, but we might think it!

As God’s true people, we need to be those who reach out, and in a church setting, if everyone is expending the effort to communicate, we will have healthy bodies of believers. Realistically, everyone will not make the effort to reach out. But God wants those of us who understand this necessity, to be initiators.

That will cause people to take notice. 

That will cause people to want to know what we have that they are missing.

That will cause people to listen to us when we share the Gospel.

People want to feel connected to others, at home, at work, and in their church. This means effort and time must be invested in order to build relationships. 

Please contact me if you want to talk about good communication:  ButGodCares@gmail.com.

Living for Jesus, Donna

P.S. If this has helped you, please feel free to share it with others!

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Copyright 2023 Donna Shappy   All rights reserved.  No part of this publication may be reproduced, stored in a retrieval system, or transmitted in any form or by any means – electronic, mechanical, photocopy, recording, or any other – without the prior permission of the author.