Why is a relationship with God necessary when you can’t even see Him? How do we survive in a world that is full of deception and deceit? Is God really still at work?
A relationship with an all-powerful God is the only way to safely survive this chaotic world and the world to come. Amazingly, the Almighty Creator of the universe desires to have a personal relationship with the created. Why won’t everyone accept this invitation? Many are too busy denying there is God.
God Desires Relationship
God is totally self-contained in that He is independent of all other beings or causes. ‘Thou has created all things and for thy pleasure they are and were created,’ Revelation 4:11, and God exalts in His creation.
God is the Great I Am and cannot operate outside Himself. Yet the all-knowing, all-powerful and everywhere-present God desires a personal relationship with the created. All we have to do is to get outside our egocentric self, and seek Him.
Dependent Relationship
The perfect Adam was complete in himself, for he was created in the image of the self-sufficient God, Genesis 1:26. Adam didn’t know he was totally dependent on God for he lived in a world of absolute harmony, and walked with God for a long time in the Garden of Eden. He didn’t know anything other than a special relationship with the Creator.
Sadly, Adam disobeyed the Word of God and sin entered the whole human race. Man was now dependent on God for redemption. Adam had no way of getting back into the previous relationship with God, and was driven out and barred from his place in the Garden of Eden, Genesis 3:24. I wonder how many times in his long life, did Adam turn back regretfully to look at the Garden from a distance?
Parent Child Relationship
It is no accident that God has the name Father. Throughout the New Testament we see the term sons, or children used. Jesus said, ‘Unless you are converted and become like children, you cannot enter the kingdom of heaven. Whoever humbles himself as this child, he is the greatest in the kingdom of heaven’, Matthew 18:3,4.
Note the father in the parable of the Prodigal Son. Luke 15:22-32, It is the father who is the hero of this parable., for no matter what the son did, the father never changed. He was always waiting with open arms for the son to return. So, it is with our Heavenly Father. He eagerly awaits the return of every repentant sinner and exalts over them with singing, Zephaniah 3:17. God cannot change, for He is the great I Am, yesterday, today and forever. Malachi 3:6, Hebrews 13:8.
Loving Parent
Observe the relationship between a young child and a loving parent. First you notice that love pours both ways. The parent first loves the child, and the child responds to that love. The Apostle John wrote, ‘We love because He first loved us,’ 1 John 4:19.
An even better relationship than the one Adam had with God will be established for those who believe in God and accept the Saviour. All the Old Testament saints and those who accept Jesus Christ as their Lord and Saviour will share that relationship. They are overcomers who have been tested and tried through the fiery trials of living in a natural world, where Satan is the prince of the power of the air, Ephesians 2:2.
Parental Care
The parent pre-thinks what the child needs and provides an environment where the child can develop to its full potential. Every parent wants the child to be free to grow and develop and become fulfilled. Our Heavenly Father knows what we need before we ask Him, Matthew 6:8, and desires us to reach our full potential in Him. In fact, He declares the end from the beginning, Isaiah 48:10.
The child totally trusts the parent and has full faith that the parent can do anything. It is such a tragedy that many parents do not truly understand their role, while many children rebel. Yet, we can totally trust our Heavenly Father, for His Word will be fulfilled.
A child has no achievements or accomplishments to commend themself with. A child simply, ‘Is’ just as God ‘Is’. The relationship with God is a gift from a loving Heavenly Father.
Constant Communication
God is constantly communicating with the created, calling them to a relationship with Him. God is more eager to communicate than we are to listen, because the Heavenly Father desires a relationship with His sons and daughters for His pleasure. That is why He sent His only Son to pay the penalty of sin. Jesus died the death we deserved, that we might have the Way to an open relationship with the Father.
Jesus said, ‘I Am the Way, the Truth and the Life, no one comes to the Father except through Me’, John 14:6. ‘Narrow and small is the way to life and there are few who find it, while broad is the gate that leads to destruction’, Matthew 7:13. We are either slaves to sin, John 8:34, or servants of a loving Heavenly Father, who honours those who serve Him, John 12:26.
No Middle Road
All souls belong to God, Ezekiel:18:4, and we are all are accountable to God, 2 Corinthians 5:10. Every person who has ever lived will be resurrected, either unto eternal life and a relationship with God, or to eternal separation from God. There is no middle road.
However, man ever tries to bring God down to his level, but God lifts us up to Himself. As children of God we adjust our lives according to His Word.
Correction
As in the natural world so it is in the spiritual world. We can never be perfect this side of death. The wonder is that we don’t have to be perfect to have a relationship with the Father.
The wise parent not only protects the child, but wisely corrects the child. So too, the Heavenly Father corrects His children, Proverbs 3:11,12. All discipline is painful both for the parent and the child, yet it is for training, Hebrews 12:11. It is through the testing and correction of the fiery trials of life we learn total dependence on a Heavenly Father.
Every parent wants the child to be free to grow and develop and feel fulfilled and loved. A child has no achievements or accomplishments to commend themself with. A child simply, ‘Is’. That is how our Father wants us to approach Him.
Relationship with God is a Privilege
God’s goal for our life is perfect, if only we will yield to His loving hand. Making God the centre of our life is not a burden but a privilege and has eternal consequences. Those who accept what Christ did at Calvary and overcome the ways of the flesh, will eternally reflect God’s glory. They will enter into an eternal friendship with the Creator. A relationship that must start here on earth, for it is the only thing you will take to heaven.
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