My sincere friend — a single woman, a devoted follower of God, a woman of God, a seeker of truth, a sacrificial person who has lived her whole life for God, in other countries … teaching children, and in several schools in the States — and I were having a heart-to-heart talk a couple of weeks ago. By the way, I admire her walk with God, she has trusted him when others might have quit. I mentioned to her the relationship we have with God. She then said a brief statement that stopped me in my tracks. “I’d never heard it called a relationship until recently.” THAT surprised me.
But I shouldn’t have been surprised. I don’t remember it being referred to in that way either. I was never taught it, but it has become a dear friend to me. My relationship with God is like a friendship, a long and enduring steadiness that strengthens, helps, and enlivens me where it counts.
After my friend’s comment, I thought back to my understanding of the term ‘relationship’ and why I believe it is a correct term to describe my connection with God. I did not see my walk with God as a relationship until it became a real relationship. This knowledge changed my viewpoint in many respects. I also saw a problem I’d never seen before and the solution to that same problem. I had a tiny epiphany.
I realized we’d been missing a big chunk of what it means to be truly Christian, and that, in itself, as a result, has led to disillusionment with the faith by some and a turning away from the faith, creating distance in those who had once professed faith in Christ but now had left the fold, not believing in its relevancy for them. Lack of depth in spiritual relationship, or in the knowledge that relationship can be had, most likely had not been cultivated in their life. Nor had an awareness of the richness that can be known in spiritual relationship infiltrated the church in living color, except for the notables who lived it, like Andrew Murray, for example. Their spiritual life was probably frustrated by a lack of intimate connection with the Trinity.
I realized that some people, believers (?), turn away from God simply because they’ve never developed a close intimacy with Him in a way that deeply impacts the heart. When God is not real, when lives are lived in two categories, secular and spiritual–with separation between the two, they have not connected with God in the interior life in a way the speaks life to the soul. Their walk with God is not one of deep heart-belief. There is a noticeable gap somewhere between believing, knowing, worshiping, and heart-living. They need to awaken, or re-awaken, to a life hid in Christ with a renewal that goes to the core. When God becomes real to you, and in you, it changes everything. This is where real living becomes sweeter than honey.
For me, it was during that process of seeking God to know Him, a pursuit that involved minutes, hours, days, and years. This was the impetus that propelled me forward, and when I began to have a greater heart for God and a more in-depth understanding of who He is and His interest in me. As His life flowed in and through me, and as my intense longing to know God became fruitful, my way of thinking and my inner self absorbed living truth that spoke volumes in the quiet places. A person that pursues God will find. God promises us that we will, and it is true.
Spiritual relationship with God starts at salvation when you believe on the Lord Jesus Christ as your Savior. That is just a starting point. From there on, your life grows in the knowledge of the Lord Jesus Christ and begins to reflect His life in you. The relationship becomes deeper as you submit to Him and follow God and the truths found in His Word. You are being shaped and molded into the form the Master Sculptor would have you to be. But at times, the relationship becomes strained when you choose to follow the ways of the flesh instead of the ways of the Spirit, or when your spiritual life has become dull, placid, rigid, or smacks of religious routine. Then you have to get back on track to renew in the areas where you’ve become distant and to make intentional choices that will revive an intimacy of tender relationship with God.
Seek God until you find Him. You’ll be glad you did.
