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Looking for a Relationship?

What would you think of your husband if he pursued you with a passion before marriage, then after marriage ignored you?
He was there, all right, but he was waiting until you were finished taking care of the kids, and doing your other stuff, so that he could really get to know you.
What kind of a relationship is that?

Many couples drift apart because they do not work to stay together.
They get busy with their own things, or the children, or work, and forget their true love.

Too often, Christians view our relationship with God in the same way.
We “got saved” all right.
And we’ll see God in heaven.
But…
Our relationship stopped there.
We know He is there, all the time.
But…
Well, how much of a relationship can you have with a God you can’t see?

Do we have to wait for heaven to have that intimate relationship?

Enoch didn’t.
Nor did Elijah.
Or Moses.
Or David.

They knew God here.
On earth.

How?
How do you build a relationship with a God that is a Spirit that you can’t see?

My oldest son experienced a long-distance relationship with his wife-to-be. 
He didn’t see her. 
But he sure improved his writing skills by emailing her—daily. (This was before he was allowed a phone.)
These epistles were long, lengthy letters.
She, in turn, responded to his questions, probably had a few of her own (how else would she get my engineer son to write anything?).
Those letters weren’t the only thing he did.
He thought about her when he wasn’t writing, about what he wanted to share with her.

Same with God. 
He’s given us His Word.

As we read it, think about it, mull over what He says, think about what pleases Him, thank Him for what He has promised us—our reading becomes a two-way communication of what He shares and our thankful, grateful response to it.

George Mueller found that extended his prayer life exponentially. See Is Your Soul Happy?
By using God’s Word as a direction for his prayers, he changed the way he prayed.
By praying for what God desired, he learned Who God was.
It opened a relationship with God never before experienced by Mueller.

Ever study the life of Elijah?
He was always telling someone what God said.
He didn’t even have the Bible.
How did he know?
He had such a communication with God that God told him things other people would never hear.
Because they weren’t listening.
And he was.

One time the woman, whose son Eljiah had promised for her, died, came to him.
She fell at his feet weeping.
Elijah’s servant tried to move her away.
Elijah rebuked his servant, “God has hidden this from me. Let her alone.”
He wasn’t prepared for her accusation that her son had died.
Yet he responded instantly by returning with her and raising her son from the dead (2 Kings 4).
Nothing like this had happened before.
He didn't follow a three-step program that you do this, this and this, then God does that.
But Elijah knew what to do.
How?

He didn’t need to prepare for a given set of circumstances.
He knew what his God was capable of doing.

Elijah walked with God so closely that he heard God speak, he did God’s works, and he so pleased God that he did not die, but was taken to heaven in a chariot.
Do you think there was a battle in the heavens when that chariot tried to leave the atmosphere?
I do.
Elijah’s bones would have been worshipped by some.
Like Moses’s—the angel buried Moses for the same reason (Jude 9).

Was Moses or Elijah more special to God?
Could they hear God better?
They wanted to hear God.
They chose that over everything else.
They searched for God in His Word.
And in His world.
They were so in tuned with what God wanted—to please Him above everything else.
Moses wanted to see God. And was rewarded with a glimpse.

Is that relationship only for people in the Bible—who can watch God write with His finger or hear judgment for their nation?
No.

God still seeks people who want to know Him.
Those who
 yield their lives totally.
To. Please. Him.

George Mueller was one.

Elizabeth Elliot was another.
Her first husband, Jim, was one of the five missionary pilots killed by the cannibals in Ecuador.
Elizabeth returned with her daughter to reach those same people for Christ.

Corrie ten Boon was another.
Her years in concentration camps, because she helped Jews escape Hitler’s killing, were not wasted time in God's timetable.
Those years brought her to know God as the God He Is.

Eric Liddle refused to run his 100 meter race in the 1924 Summer Olympics because it was held on Sunday.
He ran instead the 400 meter later in the week.
And won the gold.
He then went to China as a missionary. (Remember Chariots of Fire?)

God is not just in the business of saving everyone He can for heaven.
He wants a relationship with all those saved now!
Yes, I can’t wait for heaven, when everything is perfect, no evil, grief, tears, wrong—and I will see Jesus.
But the relationship with God starts this moment.

Not just so we don’t cry over foolish mistakes made because we didn’t know God enough to even know we weren’t doing what He wanted. 
Nor because we didn’t pursue a relationship with God as the all-consuming, only thing we did!
But because that was why we were created!
Because that brings God pleasure.

We have come again to why we do things—what gives us meaning, purpose, passion.
We were made to have a relationship with God.
Nothing else satisfies.

Looking for a relationship?
Pursue God and His Word with all your passion.


Displaying 1 comment

This article really speaks to me as I've been seeking a deeper relationship with God. Going to read Mueller's article again too. T hanks so much Sonya, know your words come from deep within you and all you have experienced and are going through. God bless you.

I write about what matters...to you---
women, wives and moms---
about your family, faith and future.
I write about what's hard, what helps and what heals.
I show you how it's done. And not done.
I hold your hand as you find what matters to the Savior.
And let go of those things that mattered to you, but not to Him.
I write about what matters...to Him.
               Sonya Contreras

Faith
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What Do You Do with Left-Overs?
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How Do You See Sin?
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Those Aha Moments
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I Believe in Jesus—What Now?
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Singing His Praise
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The Danger of "Aloneness"
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Are You a Whiner?
Are Your Works Approved?
Do You Think You're Stressed?
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God Speaks to the Heart of the King
What about the Details?
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The Worldview that Makes the
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Do the Scriptures Burn You?
Being in His Presence
Contentment: It's Not for the Timid
How Secure Are You?
How Do You Respond To Stupid People?
The Earthworm Is My Hero
Heart Issues or Issues of the Heart
Things Aren't Always What They Seem
More faith articles are found here:
alt
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Or here:
alt
under the Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
Articles on Suffering can be found  here, 
alt
under Table of Contents. Also available in book form.
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Author of Biblical fiction, married to my best friend, and challenged by eight sons’ growing pains as I write about what matters.

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