The importance of relationships in spiritual growth and integration

Matthew 18:15-20 speaks of winning back a brother or sister in faith. The manner in which this is to be done is clearly stipulated. It is characterised by a deep sense of respect and reverence of the other. Linking this with prayer the text suggests that those who want to lead spiritual lives cannot be oblivious to the type of relationships they maintain with those around them.

Why bother to win back a brother or sister?

Psychotherapeutic process makes clear that emotional upheaval, self-protective functioning, or interpersonal conflict disrupts clear thinking and encumbers effective living. A person overwhelmed by anxiety or shielded by defence mechanisms is unlikely to be able to be insightful in the pursuit of understanding, reasonable in judgment, and responsible in behaviour.

Resolution of conflict within one's life and mind opens space for the spontaneous blossoming of the self-transcending human spirit: honest judgment, insight, marvel, question, sound living and wonder. Psychological integration and spiritual growth coincide because one dimension of that integration is spiritual. Daniel Helminiak says all this in his writings on spirituality.