May 18, 2007
My oldest son and I were recently reflecting together on one’s relationship with God and the question arose, “How is our relationship with God similar to that of someone else?”
So together we began to compile a list of similarities and differences. We actually didn’t get very far for the fact of our discussing each point but I thought I’d share with you this week what we discovered.
First, reminded as we are of how the Lord instructed us to pray in Matthew 6:9-13 (see also Luke 11:24), we see that the relationship that you and I can have with God is a real one with a real Person (“Our Father…”). The God of the Bible, revealed as He is through His Word, is not an imaginary friend, nor is He merely an idea or concept that we use to explain the unexplainable. He is real. He feels. He thinks. He acts. Not only that but He also loves. He grieves. And He even hates.
Hates? Yes. He hates. It isn’t people that He hates though (see Zechariah 8:17). It’s what sin has done that He hates. He hates its effect, the devastation of lives and hopes and dreams; and He hates its source which is pride and selfishness. Its marring effect upon the countenance of humanity is a slur on God Himself because we have been created in His image. Furthermore, as we have become estranged from Him because of it, how could He not hate it? He grieves over its presence in His creation and the aching sorrows that it produces in the human sphere. But again, He also loves. And unlike us, He loves perfectly, demonstrating once and for all the immensity of that love in spending Himself on the cross on our behalf.
Yes, God is real. More real, in fact, then anyone or anything else that we’ll ever meet. Flesh and bone and blood, wind and rock and wave, even sun and moon and star, will all be gone one day, but God Himself always was and always will be (Revelation 1:8).
It is also similar to other relationships we have in that it relies upon communication for growth and fulfillment. No relationship can be said to be meaningful if there is no connection consistently and frequently maintained between those in the relationship (parent with child, husband with wife, friend with friend). If there is no “relating” to each other, how can there be a “relationship?” Therefore, our heavenly Father has given us His Word and the venue of prayer to hear from Him and to reach out to Him.
In His Word, He speaks to you individually (as well as corporately). Through His Word, He speaks to your life, your needs, your dreams, and your future. In His Word, He reveals Himself to eyes that desire to see Him and hearts that yearn to receive Him. “…Call upon Me and come and pray to Me, and I will listen to you…. You will seek Me and find Me when you seek Me with all your heart” (from Jeremiah 29:12, 13).
Through prayer, He has enabled the human spirit to fly to the throne of heaven and enter His presence. “Let us then approach the throne of grace with confidence, so that we may receive mercy and find grace to help us in our time of need” (Hebrews 4:16 NIV).
And there is to be fruit to be had from our relationship with God. In human relationships, we desire many things of course: companionship, some degree of emotional intimacy (or closeness) as we seek to “connect” with others, and perhaps other things like the accomplishments that two or more may achieve when they bring together their talents and resources.
In a much larger and more perfect way this is also true of our relationship with God when we approach Him through faith in Jesus Christ: “You yourselves have seen… how I carried you on eagles’ wings and brought you to Myself” (from Exodus 19:4). And one of the amazing things about our relationship with God is that it both achieves the most profound and eternal of intimacies as it brings us near to the heart of the Father, but also accomplishes the work of the Father in His mission to bring His errant creation under His dominion of grace.
So when we pray as Jesus taught us, “…Your kingdom come, Your will be done on earth as it is in heaven…”, we can know that we are simply asking, as God gives “us this day our daily bread” (Matthew 6:11), that the overflow of His activity in our lives will also effect His purposes around us and accomplish for others what it has accomplished for us.
As my son and I discovered, our relationship with God is just like that of anyone else… except it is bigger and more beautiful, for the Person with Whom we have this relationship is infinitely beautiful and wise and loving. In our discussing it, we had to admit that it is the one relationship that we wish above all others to nurture and enjoy. And as we do so, we will find that all other relationships will be enriched and blessed because of it.
“Ask and it will be given to you; seek and you will find; knock and the door will be opened to you. For everyone who asks receives; he who seeks finds; and to him who knocks, the door will be opened. Which of you, if his son asks for bread, will give him a stone? Or if he asks for a fish, will give him a snake? If you, then, though you are evil, know how to give good gifts to your children, how much more will your Father in heaven give good gifts to those who ask Him!” (Matthew 7:7-11 NIV).
(Thom Mollohan and his family have ministered in southern Ohio the past twelve years. He is the pastor of Pathway Community Church, which meets on Sunday mornings at 455 Third Avenue. He may be reached for comments or questions by email at pastorthom@pathwaygallipolis.com).
