Creating Intimacy in Your Relationship with God
“16 The Spirit Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that we may also be glorified together.” Romans 8:16-17 (NLT)
by Alexandra Copeland
When we first came to God, many of us
are at our wits end. We had not done so well with our lives,
and we recognized that we needed a kind of help that is
beyond any human being on earth. Our conditions at the time
we came to God told the true story about how we treated
ourselves, as well as how we might have treated others; but
no matter what we did in the past, Heavenly Father still
accepted us into His loving arms. He did not turn us away,
and the truth is that we deserved to be turned away. Instead
of rejecting us because of our flaws, missteps, and
mistakes, heaven rejoiced when we made the decision to
accept Jesus Christ as the Lord of our lives.
Our new birth experience began our
journey in Christ. Many people think that this was it in
terms of their spirituality is concerned, but that simply
isn’t true. Our relationship with Christ was at its
beginning stages, and no one could really tell us what to
expect. In Matthew 11:28-30 (NLT), Jesus Christ gives us
some very pivotal information that will help any new
believer to mold their expectations about the spiritual
journey forward. He said,
“Come to me, all of
you who are weary and carry heavy burdens, and I will give
you rest. Take my yoke upon you. Let me teach you, because I
am humble and gentle at heart, and you will find rest for
your souls. For my yoke is easy to bear, and the burden I
give you is light.”
All of us living on this earth carry
heavy burdens, because life on earth, in and of itself, is
full of them. Jesus Christ invites us to give him our
burdens, and in exchange we are to take his yoke or burden upon
us. So that we would know exactly what we’re getting, Jesus
assured us that his yoke is easy to bear. He said,
“Let me teach you…”
This is crucial, because it tells us right off the bat that
there are going to be some lessons about Christ that we need
to learn, so that we can continue to journey forward in
developing our relationship with God.
Traveling Light
God tells us in Philippians 4:6 (NLT), “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Worry and anxiety are cousins of fear, and there is nothing heavier in a person’s life than fear. It weighs us down and keeps us from moving forward the way God wants. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith, and a person cannot exercise faith and fear at the same time. You must choose one or the other. So either we are going to trust Heavenly Father with every fiber of our being, or we will choose to be riddled with worry.
God tells us in Philippians 4:6 (NLT), “Don’t worry about anything; instead, pray about everything. Tell God what you need, and thank him for all he has done.” Worry and anxiety are cousins of fear, and there is nothing heavier in a person’s life than fear. It weighs us down and keeps us from moving forward the way God wants. Hebrews 11:6 tells us that it is impossible to please God without faith, and a person cannot exercise faith and fear at the same time. You must choose one or the other. So either we are going to trust Heavenly Father with every fiber of our being, or we will choose to be riddled with worry.
For some of us, this is a very hard
choice because we have grown so accustomed to habit patterns
of fear. There are individuals that have held on to
oppressive attitudes and behaviors so long that they cannot
imagine a life free from them. These attitudes lead to poor
physical health, and they greatly diminish our quality of
life. This is not what Heavenly Father wants for us. He
wants us to travel light and burden free, and the only way
to do this is to give our worries and anxieties to Him and
leave them in His very capable hands.
The Commitment
From the moment we become born again, our obligation to Christ begins. Becoming a follower of Christ means that we become his ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT) tells us, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” Jesus Christ has done the hard part, and now it’s our turn to pick up where he left off and continue his work. This is not an arduous task; it is a glorious one!
From the moment we become born again, our obligation to Christ begins. Becoming a follower of Christ means that we become his ambassadors. 2 Corinthians 5:20 (NLT) tells us, “So we are Christ’s ambassadors; God is making his appeal through us. We speak for Christ when we plead, “Come back to God!” Jesus Christ has done the hard part, and now it’s our turn to pick up where he left off and continue his work. This is not an arduous task; it is a glorious one!
If our minds are so occupied with the
cares of this world, and we are so on our grinds that we
can’t think about anything else, life is going to become
very heavy for us. This is not the way God intended life to
be lived, and it is exactly why so many who live this way
are very stressed out and miserable. Yes, we have to work to
make a living, and we have responsibilities to our families
and loved ones, but we can never put anything above our
commitment to God through Jesus Christ.
Life is a gift from God. He tells us in
Romans 12:2 that the absolute best way to get the most out
of our lives is to present them to Him, as a living and holy
sacrifice. We can’t do anything for God or anyone else when
we die. Our commitment to Him is to do all that we can for
His Kingdom while we yet live. We were created for this
purpose, and God will reward our obedience.
We Are God’s Children
One of the greatest things about living a life for God through Jesus Christ is that it is a very intimate and personal walk. We are each so different, and God deals us with on a very individual basis. Not only has He given us each specific talents, skills, and abilities, but He recognizes our unique personalities and idiosyncrasies. He’s made room in His plan for each and every one of us, and that’s just mind-blowing to think about. This is how extraordinary His love for us truly is.
One of the greatest things about living a life for God through Jesus Christ is that it is a very intimate and personal walk. We are each so different, and God deals us with on a very individual basis. Not only has He given us each specific talents, skills, and abilities, but He recognizes our unique personalities and idiosyncrasies. He’s made room in His plan for each and every one of us, and that’s just mind-blowing to think about. This is how extraordinary His love for us truly is.
Romans 8:16-17 (NLT) says,
“16 The Spirit
Himself bears witness with our spirit that we are children
of God, 17 and if children, then heirs—heirs of God and
joint heirs with Christ, if indeed we suffer with Him, that
we may also be glorified together.” The Holy Spirit, the
gift of God, lives on the inside of us. He, the indwelling
Holy Spirit, testifies with our newly created spirit that we
are God’s children. The Spirit is an internal witness of the
relationship that we have with God.
God has given us the privilege of
witnessing the relationship between a parent and a child so
that we have some idea of the depth of love that He carries
for us. Our biological parents have done the best that they
could do, and those of us that are parents do the same. We
make mistakes; we don’t get it right many times, but loving
parents will make many sacrifices and keep trying to get it
right because of the love we have for our children.
As someone’s biological child, you have
something of them that is with you no matter where you go.
You may not know everything there is to know, but you will
always be able to identify yourself as your parent’s child.
Multiply this by infinity and you’ll have some idea of what
it means to be a child of God. His DNA is in us through the
Holy Spirit. Ephesians 1:13(NLT) says,
“And
when you believed in Christ, he identified you as his own by
giving you the Holy Spirit, whom he promised long ago.”
You just don’t
get any better than this.
Sometimes we make the mistake of
neglecting to nurture our relationship with God through
Jesus Christ, and we let it slip from being our first
priority. Our lives will quickly fall apart when this
happen. Traveling light by surrendering
our worries and anxieties to God, honoring our commitment to
Christ by continuing his legacy of love and giving, and
always recognizing and appreciating the awesome privilege we
have to know God as our Heavenly Father; these three are
disciplines will help to create intimacy in our relationship
with God, as we continue to worship Him in Spirit and study
His Word.♦
Scripture taken from the New King
James Version. Copyright © 1982 by Thomas Nelson, Inc. Used
by permission. All rights reserved.
Scripture quotations marked (NLT)
are taken from the Holy Bible, New Living Translation,
copyright © 1996. Used by permission of Tyndale House
Publishers, Inc., Wheaton, Illinois 60189. All rights
reserved.
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