Live In Harmony

0:00 You're listening to the My Morning Devotional podcast, episode 1388. Today's episode is called Live in Harmony. Hey there. We're the Alessi's a ministry family working together in our church in Miami, Florida. And if you're like us, when days get busy and to do lists get longer, it can be hard to find devotional time. That's why we've partnered with our friend Allison to produce a five minute daily dose of heaven. This is the My Morning Devotional podcast. Hello, everyone, my name is Lauren Alessi. This whole month we've been talking about overcoming October. And this week we are talking about unity over division. And I hope it has blessed you as much as it has blessed me.

0:43 And not just been a blessing, but also it's been sharpening, it's been refining you. I know it's been the same thing to me and I know it's really encouraged me throughout this week and I hope it's done the same for you. So today we're going to talk on Live In Harmony. And our verse of the day is Romans 16, and it says this. Live in harmony with one another. Do not be proud, but be willing to associate with people of low position. Do not be conceited. I really love this verse because here's what we see. Unity requires humility. When we're so proud, when we're so prideful of ourselves, that makes us be alone. It makes us think, man, I don't need other people.

1:28 I don't need their opinions. I just like where I came from. I like my background. I don't need anybody else. But in order for us to be united, naturally we need other people around us. It takes us to say, hey, I don't know everything. I'm not the genius here. And maybe someone else has insight that's actually going to help me be right here, because I need to submit this. So it's like we were saying before, I don't have all the answers. So I got to submit it to the word of God. And let me see what the Word of God says. And a lot of times that also looks like I don't know the answers here. Let me look to the word of God. Let me speak to the leader in my church, see what they have to say. Let me get some accountability on this. And that takes humility. But when we're prideful about our opinions, about our thoughts, it's just, no, it's just me. I don't need anybody else. That's my opinion. And naturally, people like that, well, let's just be real. People like that, people don't want to be around.

2:23 But then people like that cause disagreement. People like that cause division. Because it's just my opinion. I disagree with you. I disagree with what this person says. No, no, I don't want to hear your opinion. I don't want to hear where you come from. I just disagree. And I will say, if you have a tendency to disagree and to cause division, I will say this. You're human. I am naturally someone who goes negative and who disagrees. I could be a little cynical like that, we're human. Maybe you're like that, too. But the error in that is when you get prideful. The error in that is when you don't surround yourself with people who can say, hey, you're actually wrong there. The error in that is when you don't submit your thoughts and opinions to the word of God and say, maybe I could be wrong here. So we all have a tendency to be prideful. We're human. It's like I admitted the other episode, sometimes it's kind of fun. It's like, let me disagree here. Because it's kind of fun. It changes up the conversation, like, right? It's kind of fun to cause a little bit of disagreement.

3:28 And it can even create a habit of disagreement. And you're always that person who's disagreeing and causing disagreements, division. But when you're not surrounding yourself with people, you're getting prideful about it. And it's impossible to live in harmony when you're constantly prideful about your opinions, about your thoughts. But when you're humble, it draws people together. Living in harmony doesn't mean we're all going to think alike magically, because, okay, now I've decided to submit my thoughts to the word of God, and now we all just think alike. I wish that were true, but that's just not realistic. And that's not how God made us either. I think one way, my sister thinks a completely different way and our other sister thinks a completely different way because we all have different processes, so we think differently. And I actually think God made us that way. And it keeps life fun and it keeps life interesting. So living in harmony doesn't mean that we all think alike. It just means that. That we each have our own process and we treat each other with dignity and respect with that process. And honestly, it's saying, I love the way you think, I respect the way that you think, and living in harmony means you think that way. But there's no disagreement in the way that you process, there's no disagreement in the way I process. And just because that's how you process, there's no disunity amongst us. Sure, we may have a little bit of, of different ways that we process things.

4:56 We may read a Bible verse and we take it two different ways. Let's submit that to the word of God to make sure the way that we're reading it is biblically accurate because we don't want to misconstrue anything in the word of God. But it's making sure there's still, there's no disunity amongst us, amongst our friends, amongst our brothers and sisters. So I don't know about you, but, but I would love to see what living in harmony would look like amongst just the people around me. I feel like we do actually a really good job amongst my friends, amongst my family. But even if I can apply living in harmony to my own life and submitting all of my thoughts, all of my opinions to the word of God on a daily basis, I'd love to see that harmony come to life. Let's pray. Dear God, we thank you so much for your word.

5:45 Again, we thank you so much that it's to sharpen us, it's to make us better. God and you never guaranteed that this Christian life was easy. It's going to come with some sharpening tools. It's going to come with some days where we have to work at being a better person, God. And that's not always going to be easy. But Lord, help us see that unity is a calling, Lord, and it requires humility. It requires us to lay down our thoughts and opinions and to surround ourself with people who are going to make us better. And Lord, help us not to see disagreement and disunity amongst our friends and amongst our family. But Lord, help us to treat each other with dignity and respect along the way so that we can live in harmony. In Jesus name I pray. Amen.

6:27 So there you have it, your 5 minute daily dose of heaven. Thank you so much for tuning in today. We pray these devotionals empower you to take on your day. If you found value in this devotional, share it with a friend. Leave a comment or review for us on the app you're using right now. Until tomorrow. We pray that your latte is strong, but your love for Jesus is stronger.