WHAT DOES A RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD LOOK LIKE?

 GREETINGS IN THE NAME OF JESUS:

   All too often we are left wondering just what it takes to have a good relationship with God.  So what does a good relationship really look like?

 It really should not be so difficult to work out a relationship with someone whom we were created and designed to be like.  Actually, a relationship with God is maintained and grown just like any other relationship we have with anyone else in this life.  We become afraid to think and feel around God and I think that is a mistake on our part.  We were created first of all to have His emotions, and we naturally have high and low points that we should be going to God for instructions on how to handle.  We forget that in God  He seeks the truth about who we are. We are not going to be perfect, but we can be honest.  When we seek a relationship out with anyone else what are the main things we want to have from that relationship?  Quite frankly, there has been a specter hanging over our heads about what is and is not acceptable in our relationship with God that needs to be changed for some of us before we can feel close to God as we should.  One of the big things is in our communication with God.  When I say communication I am not just talking about the same old kind of prayer that we think of in church, but it means talking with Him; thinking about Him, reading His mail, and listening to what He has to say to us.

 Hebrews 11:6  speaks to us about praying with faith which means to me that I need to have confidence that I am not just talking to myself, but I have complete confidence that He is there listening to what I think and say.  Psalms 24:3-4 tells us we should pray with clean hands and a pure heart, which means to me that I should not try to con God by saying one thing yet secretly wanting to achieve something else.  We cannot treat God the same ways we have been taught to treat this world with lies and deceit.  God hates a lier more than anything because that is where sin came from. God has never asked us to come to Him perfectly; but rather honestly.  I think that is why we should not try to use the same tactics with God that we often try to us on one another in this world. In the book of Matthew 6:7  Jesus speaks to us about another trick that Satan uses on us; in fact, it is one that the church has used for years instead of actually seeking out God, and it is called Vain repetition. Just memorizing a prayer like the Lord's Prayer and reciting it instead of actually praying and communicating with God may allow you to check prayer off of your to-do list but it will not strengthen your relationship with God; instead, it holds God from you at an arm's length. That becomes a task completed in the design of a denominational creed or doctrine rather than communication between you and God.  I don't recall God ever asking us to memorize and repeat any prayer?  God wants us to talk to Him, not at Him.  Doing something out of a sense of duty or habit is not building a healthy relationship. How would you feel if a friend would always quote something you had said instead of really talking to you?  I think of husbands and wives as they talk many times always going back to things said or done in the past instead of sticking to a topic in an argument.
  We need to be open with God in our emotions, but we also need to be clear and present when we talk to our Father. I know people who know the words to use, but they never care about the meaning of the words they use. We are given these senses so that we can communicate effectively those things that we desire and need the most from God, and yet instead of talking with Him about real issues in our lives many times, we end up with a grocery list of things that never seem to change.

  We need desperately to listen to what God tells us, but the question is How can we hear Him? That is once again up to you because it depends on how we listen. For those who are in Christ, He is also in them...God will speak to your heart because that is His way of communication.  We can see all kinds of communication from God to us if we will only begin to look for it. God speaks through His creation, and by showing us signs and wonders during our day.  God speaks to those who have an open heart to receive and spiritual eyes to see.  God speaks through His word which is a living thing when we open up our hearts to receive it.  There is quite a story behind God's love for us that is not told in many churches today because, it quite simply, steps on too many toes. May you richly bless God through your life in Him.


THE UNWORTHY SERVANT