How can you be confident that your relationship with God is satisfying both of you? God took desperate measures through the work of the cross to reinstate our ability to be connected to Him. He also created us with an innate desire for intimate connection with Him? So how can we be assured that the relationship is “doing what it’s supposed to do?”
Well, as I said in last week’s blog post, Don’t Settle for Someone Else’s Word, Get Your Own,
Communion with God is all about an exchange.
“We should never feel as though we’re doing all the talking. The truth is that we need to be emptying ourselves of our own thoughts, preoccupations, and agendas so that we can make room mentally, emotionally, and spiritually for God to fill us up with His wisdom, His power, His plans, and His glory”.
Ask yourself, whether your conversation with God is one-sided. Are you doing all the talking? If so, then it’s time go deeper into your practice of connecting with God. The ultimate goal is to clearly hear from God. When you can, you can be confident that your relationship with God is satisfying both of you.
One thing that God is pointing out is that it’s all too easy to settle for someone else’s word.
Yup, someone else’s opinions, points of views, and advice to sustain what should be your own intimate relationship with God. But God ain’t having that. He’s jealous and He wants less of the middle man and more of you!
We’re in a love triangle with God and the world. But now, God wants us to narrow our options so He can draw more out of us.
Through the volume of drama in the world, God is stirring up the need for us to seek His face like never before. “Seeking” is a journey, a practice, a discipline that requires us to dwell with God the best way we know how. Whether we’re engaging with worship music, meditating on His word, praying or journaling our sweet nothings to God, it shows that we’re investing time in the most important relationship we could ever be in.
And when cut cut out the middle man and ease up from your dependency on the world, you can be confident that your relationship with God is satisfying both of you.
The mandate for social distancing is highlighting extreme dependencies that we have on our social lives at work, church, family, friends, and etc.
There’s nothing wrong with our need and desire to connect with other human beings. God created us to be relational beings so it’s natural. But as the Body of Christ we profess and sing, “I want to be where You are. I’ve got to be where You are”. We say it with our lips, but the level of our priority to spend ample time with God in solitude shows otherwise.
I certainly have my highs and lows due to the quarantine. My flesh bucks up often due to the Rona fast. But lately, I’ve noticed that my heart is more receptible and inclined to listen to what God is whispering in my ear concerning the recent turn of events in our world’s history.
Do you have eyes to see and ears to hear?
In last week’s blog, Don’t Settle for Someone Else’s Word, Get Your Own!” I encourage you to practice getting quiet before God so that you can hear God for yourself as well.
Seeking is dwelling and dwelling is seeking and it looks different for all of us. But the thing I want to point out is that God wants to thoroughly establish our love relationship with Him.
Once that love relationship is solidified, we can get down to business during our quiet time.
Well, God does most of the work. He’s on His business to develop our spiritual senses. Our spiritual senses need to be on point. Because when they are, we can operate effectively in the spiritual gifts that God has given each of us.
Let’s not forget that God created us to live a purpose driven life no matter what crisis is going on in the world. In fact, the reality of the global crisis goes to show us that the world needs to Body of Christ to shine forth in the glory of God through our spiritual gifts.
The key to operate effectively in our gifts to carry out the agenda of our sovereign God is to master the art of dwelling with and seeking God.
Because when we meet Him in prayer, worship, and Bible meditation, He characterizes us with His divine nature. He personifies His glory through us. He glorifies Himself through the purposes that we fulfill by His grace.
So let me ask you… What have you been dwelling on?What are the spiritual advantages that you’ve been reaping as a result of the quarantine?
While other people are scaring themselves silly or being silly by taking this all too lightly, as the Body of Christ, God calls us to so much more.
He’s calling us higher. He’s challenging us to quiet the world around us to tune into His news, the good news.
We don’t have to be lost, panicked, and confused. We don’t have to settle for the crumbs from someone else’s table.
God is speaking, He’s live, and He’s inviting us to dine with Him.
The entire world has slowed down so that you can catch up.
Let’s not lose this moment to draw closer to God. Let’s avail ourselves to Him so that he can develop us for radical ministry for such a time as this. We need to rise up and be the salt and the light that the world needs. Let’s make God proud and be confident that our relationship with God satisfies Him most!
