*DOMINION MANDATE DAILY DEVOTIONAL*

*WEDNESDAY, AUGUST 26, 2020*

*CLOSER THAN A BROTHER*

*BIBLE READING: JOB 6:14; LUKE 16:1-13*

*A man who has friends must himself be friendly, but there is a friend who sticks closer than a brother. Proverbs 18:24(NKJV).*

There are several indices of power, some of them are; political power, intellectual power, financial power and social capital. Social power is, your relationship net worth.

Man was designed as a social being; he was made a relational creature. To be successful in life, we need people because no great achievement is ever accomplished in complete isolation. When your life is void of positive relationships, it could be termed as another degree of poverty.

More worthy of note is the fact that all of God's dealings with us in terms of His blessings and intervention in our lives require people. This proves the vital truth that God is the source of our blessings but men are definitely the channels. *"Give, and it shall be given unto you; good measure, pressed down, shaken together, and running over, shall MEN give into your bosom. For with the same measure that you mete withal it shall be measured to you again."* Luke 6:38 (KJV). You see!

Time and again, life has proven that healthy relationships are what is needed mostly for turbulent times. They are tools that God rides on to bring intervention for our cases. In other words, building good relationships helps to make certain challenges unfelt.

In Luke 16:1-13, Jesus told a parable with this vital moral lesson about a servant who was faced with dismissal from his job. Upon foreseeing the threat of losing his job glaring at him, he resorted to this all-time law of success: relationship networking. As a matter of fact, Jesus' emphasis on the servant's decision reveals one of the reasons for relationship building: hard times.

There are situations in life that your biological family may be absent or incapacitated to lend a helping hand or give you a listening ear, only your friends will. There are heights you will never reach without certain relationships. There are friends whose presence in life your can mean more than gold. Such relationships are more than financial capital and they are not built casually but by covenant.

For us as Christians, the common denominator that coronated us into Christ as His brothers is a shared creed, and personal profession of His Lordship knitted by covenant through the sacrifice of His body and blood. By this, we are offered a foundation for trustworthy relationships. This means that we should trust each other, we should be there for ourselves, we should stand for each other, we should defend each other at all times, all of which biological relationships may not be there to offer us, but covenant friendships will. There are friends that stick closer than a brother.

*PRAYER
Father thank You for enlisting me into Your covenant family through our Lord Jesus Christ. Help me to value, nuture, and maintain the relationships You bring my way beginning with relationships of my fellow brothers and sisters in Christ. As Your word says today, help me to prove myself friendly towards those that You bring my way in Jesus name, Amen.