Relationship with God

Is a relationship with God important? What does the Bible say about it? How can we get a relationship with God? Are there benefits to having a relationship with God?

First, lets address if a relationship with God is important. I believe that it is. How can we possibly know God without a relationship? I would compare it to the President of the United States or a royal of another country. Most of us know facts about them but we do not know them as we know our family and friends. While we could pick them out in a crowd, from seeing their image so much, they could not tell us apart from anyone else in that crowd. While God knows each of us, do we know him?

As with any relationship there are benefits in that relationship. An example of this is a stranger and our child (sibling, friend) could ask for the same item. We have enough to get one of the item. The one we have a relationship with is the most likely to get that item. We are God's children, he wants us to have good things, and knows better then we do of what is good for us. Just as we know not everything is good for our own children. God always answers our requests. We might not like the response or recognize it as it came differently then we thought it would. God answers one of three ways; yes and we get what we want soon. No and we know in a bit that it was a no and learn why eventually. Then there is the hardest answer to accept- wait. When we are told to wait we do not know if it is a yes or a no so we get impatient. In that we are similar to our own children, we want what we want when we want it and do not like being told to wait.

So, how do we get a relationship with God? We repent of our wrongs, develop a prayer life, read the bible, study the bible and accept God's grace and mercy. Some of those terms might be difficult to understand. Repent is simply saying you are sorry for the wrongs you have done, listing as many as you can think of and make a decision to do better. There will be days you get it right and days you fail, keep trying it will get easier as time goes on. Other things God might just remove from you. Only God know why some are instant and others are a process, but it does teach us spiritual warfare. That will be discussed in a future post. Prayer is simply talking to God as we would a close friend. Speak it out as there is power in the spoken word. I will write more on that in a later post as well. Reading the Bible is just reading it. Studying the Bible is reading with desire to learn something from it.

It is important to study more often then just reading the Bible. We get more out of smaller daily chunks than the same amount here and there. Other ways to improve our relationship with God are regular church attendance in a place that preaches truth. This will give us a better understanding of what we read and correct out any faulty viewpoints. We will discuss how to find the truth in a later post. The best way is to read the scriptures yourself.

The Bible verses that support all of this are Matthew 6:9, Romans 8:15, John 17:9, John 17:20-23, Luke 19:10, John 8:32, John 1:12, 2 Chronicles 20:7, Romans 12:1, and Acts 9. In order to encourage you to seek the truth for yourself, I am not writing the words of those verses here. Tell me your thoughts in the comments.