What Kind of Relationship Do We have? – Sunday Thought For The Day

How often we treat God with a self-interested dishonesty. I call it playing Christian. We have all the right lingo, exhortations, and imagery, e.g., crucifixes, etc. but we treat the Lord as a person who is only of value when they are needed. We do not seek a loving relationship with God as our Heavenly Father. The worst thing is that the enemy has blinded us to this central truth.

In many instances even if we are regular and/or faithful churchgoers we are indifferent to God. We can read daily devotionals and bible verses and yet be indifferent to God. That is because we have a perfunctory relationship with Him. In other words, we perform daily, weekly, routine superficialities. The desire to bond in a true loving Father son, daughter, child relationship that grows deeper and more reliant day after day and year after year is not the most important thing in our lives.

After all we’re busy. We have jobs, maybe we have illness in the family or we want to watch the big game. We’re in a hurry to get home because we have a meeting later in the evening or maybe we have to get our daughter to dance lessons or our son to music lessons.

Suffice it to say that many times God is only needed when He is needed. If there is a problem with health, finances or relationship(s) we turn to God but even then, often He is not our first choice. We trust doctors, counselors, diets and what someone says at work first. God is the last resort and even then our prayers are limited in scope because for us faith has become a noun, it is not a verb.

That’s not the kind of relationship I want with my Heavenly Father. I want a close loving friendship. I don’t want God only when I need Him because I’m in trouble; I want God every minute of the day. I want to awaken in the morning with Him as my first thought and close my eyes at night with Him as my last thought. When I look at my wife and child, I want to see them with the love that is found in the Father’s love for me.

I don’t place my hope for a better world in a political party. I ask God to bring forth righteous leaders. I want Christians to step up and make a difference for God. Not according to the world’s impotent view of God but in the power of His spirit.

We should want a relationship with God that is so close that we can tell Him anything; we can ask Him anything and we can trust Him for everything. We should want a relationship with God in which He is our all and our everything. We should not view God as a last resort or “something” we do on Sunday. We should want God, our Heavenly Father to be first in our life in every capacity. We should want to sense His presence in our life every waking moment.

If we are so busy and/or preoccupied that He is excluded from our life, we are not living our lives for Him. We are living them for ourselves and that is the formula for unfulfilled empty lives.

READ:
Psalm 16 (KJV)
16 Preserve me, O God: for in thee do I put my trust.

2 O my soul, thou hast said unto the Lord, Thou art my Lord: my goodness extendeth not to thee;

3 But to the saints that are in the earth, and to the excellent, in whom is all my delight.

4 Their sorrows shall be multiplied that hasten after another god: their drink offerings of blood will I not offer, nor take up their names into my lips.

5 The Lord is the portion of mine inheritance and of my cup: thou maintainest my lot.

6 The lines are fallen unto me in pleasant places; yea, I have a goodly heritage.

7 I will bless the Lord, who hath given me counsel: my reins also instruct me in the night seasons.

8 I have set the Lord always before me: because he is at my right hand, I shall not be moved.

9 Therefore my heart is glad, and my glory rejoiceth: my flesh also shall rest in hope.

10 For thou wilt not leave my soul in hell; neither wilt thou suffer thine Holy One to see corruption.

11 Thou wilt shew me the path of life: in thy presence is fulness of joy; at thy right hand there are pleasures for evermore.