PERSONAL RELATIONSHIP WITH GOD

Today's topic is about having a personal relationship with God. It is very important build your relationship with God daily. There are many ways that you can strengthen your relationship; by prayer, meditation, worship, helping others, being brutally honest with yourself and God, by being there for someone who is in a struggle or hard situation, by keeping yourself pure and many others. The most important of these is to have a daily conversation with God.

I will provide you with scripture from the Old and New Testament's of God's word that will help you to understand what it means to build a relationship with God. All scripture and study materials are taken from my Quest Study Bible. My hopes are that God reveals something to you and you are able to apply it to your life.

The Old Testament:

Psalm 32:8-9

8.I will instruct you and teach you in the way you should go; I will council you and watch over you.
9.Do not be like the horse or the mule, which have no understanding but must be controlled by bit and bridle or they will not come to you.

This scripture gives a graphic image that looks at human response, not God's methods. This scripture implies that we can be as stubborn as mules. It does not imply that God forces us in any way to go against our will. Verse 8 in this Psalm shows us that God will offer us instruction and council, not spiritual coercion. God wants a relationship with us and all we have to do is want one with Him. God wants our willing trust and obedience. At the same time, however, God is still sovereign, all-knowing and all-powerful.

We as Christians need to must maintain conversation with our Lord so that He can guide us. We also need to help others who struggle develop their relationship.

Psalm 107:33-43

33.He turned rivers into a desert, flowing springs into a thirsty ground, 34.and fruitful into a salt waste, because of the wickedness of those who lived there.
35.He turned the desert into pools of water and the parched ground into flowing springs; 36.there He brought the hungry to live, and they founded a city where they could settle. 37.They sowed fields and planted vineyards that yielded a fruitful harvest; 38.he blessed them, and their numbers greatly increased, and he did not let their herds diminish. 39.Then their numbers decreased, and they were humbled by oppression, calamity and sorrow; 40.he who pours contempt on on nobles made them wander in trackless waste. 41.But he lifted the needy out of their affliction and increased their families like flocks. 42.The upright see and rejoice, but all the wicked shut their mouths. 43.Whoever is wise, let him heed these things and consider the great love of the Lord.

This scripture shows a familiar pattern in the relationship between God and His people: His people repent; God forgives and blesses them; his people become spiritually comfortable and apathetic and eventually sin against God; God sends judgment; his people repent. This psalm describes this cycle very well, demonstrating God's great patience with us. He judges us to bring us back to Him.

The last verse says that whoever of us is wise, we should step back and think of the ways that God has tried to develop a relationship with us. He wants us to see the ways He is there for us so we will quit being stubborn and be there with Him, communicating always.

Jeremiah 22:16

16.He defends the cause of the poor and needy, and so all went well. Is that not what it means to know me? Declares the Lord.

Is it not enough to help the poor and needy? We must not confuse the "evidence" of a relationship with God with the "means" to having that relationship. Throughout scripture we find that it is by faith alone that we receive forgiveness, salvation and personal relationship with God. One evidence that we know God intimately is the desire to follow God's will. So the answer to the question is NO. It takes a lot more to know God than just helping the poor and the needy. Those things are great, but they are expected of us, as Christians, by God.

The New Testament:

Matthew 19:21

21.Jesus answered, "If you want to be perfect, go, sell all your possessions and give to the poor, and you will have treasures in heaven. Then come, follow me."

Jesus was in no way saying that in order to gain eternal life we need to sell all our possessions.He is saying that it only takes one thing to block a relationship with God. We can become spiritually hindered if we depend on material possessions. We can also block our relationship with God by being to wrapped up in ourselves; the way we looks or how great we are at a certain thing. We must not become conceded.

Luke 18:22-30

22.When Jesus heard this, he said to him, "You still lack one thing. Sell everything you have and give it to the poor, and you will have treasure in heaven. Then come, follow me."
23.When he heard this, he became very sad, because he was a man of great wealth. 24.Jesus looked at him and said, "How hard it is for the rich to enter the kingdom of God! 25.Indeed, it is easier for a camel to go through the eye of a needle than for a rich man to9 enter the kingdom of God."
26.Those who heard this asked, "Who then can be saved?"
27.Jesus replied, "What is impossible with man is possible with God."
28.Peter said to him, "We have left all we have to follow you!"
29."I tell you the truth," Jesus said to them, "no one who has left home or wife or brothers or parents or children for the sake of the kingdom of God 30.will fail to receive many times as much in this age and, in the age to come, eternal life.

What do we have to give up to gain eternal life? Jesus was not saying that we have to become poor to gain eternal life. He was saying that it only takes one thing to block a relationship with God. Again Jesus is talking about material things and possessions. We sometimes get so wrapped up in the things of this world. Jesus is trying to tell us that our treasures in heaven are so much greater than anything we can possess on earth.

Jesus uses the example of the camel having an easier time getting through the eye of a needle than a rich man getting into heaven. In some translations the word camel was thought to mean rope. By this example Jesus is again telling us that by being wrapped so much into our materials in this world, we lack the spiritual tools needed to enter God's kingdom. Wealth is very dangerous to our spiritual lives.

All of these scriptures have specific instructions, from Jesus, about maintaining our personal relationship with God. They talk of how we can build, sustain, maintain and excel our relationship with God. God is always there for us when we need Him. It is crucial for us to be there right with Him.

I really hope that this post today has helped someone in some way develop their relationship with God. I hope that others were able to learn a little more about Jesus and His Father. I love you all and pray that God blesses you and tour families many times over!